1. Investigating Precarious Employment in rural Ontario
Think of your favourite job – maybe the one you have now, or one you had before, or the dream one you will have later. PE is the opposite of this.
Valencia Gaspard, PhD Student
University of Guelph
CRRF Conference 2016

2. What is it? Unpredictable work schedules
High turnover (quicker termination)
Impermanent jobs
Low employee engagement
Low-paying
Low worker advocacy (no Union or collective voice)
No or little benefits
Neoliberal employment trend
No training/opportunities

3. Manufacturing
2002 accounted for 8.9% Canada’s GDP, fell to 4.9% in 2014
% of total employment in Ontario rural small towns
2004 decline began
Every manufacturing job lost in rural Ontario between jobs were created elsewhere
The problem: those jobs pay 25.3% less than manufacturing
(CRRF, 2015; Statistics Canada, 2008)
To discuss PE in rural communities means telling the story of manufacturing:
In 2002 manufacturing accounted for 8.9% of Canada’s GDP…In 2014 that almost 9% of GDP dropped to 4.9%.
Manufacturing jobs in rural Ontario have been synonymous with: stable, well-paying, unionized, reliable work. They could be counted on as steady forms of family supporting employment. In 2002, 20% of total employment in rural small towns. In 2004 the great decline began –
So jobs left those areas, and other areas. Of course, there were new jobs available in rural Ontario. During that time the unemployment rate did not skyrocket. Some people who lost those good jobs started working in other placed. Not captured by unemployment rate – UE is low that’s good, UE is high that’s bad ..not a good measure
The problem: those jobs pay 25.3% less than manufacturing jobs. Interestingly that difference is only 11.2% in large census metropolitan areas …. So the good jobs are gone, replaced with worse jobs and workers need to deal with that system.
Interesting difference between urban and rural, many system checked, such as re-education, are more easily accessed in urban settings. Leaving rural people out.

4. Indicators Part time work Temporary/contract work Low wages
Self-employment (non-incorporated)
That can mean a lot of different things – so in the project I’m a part of, we have 4 concrete indicators
Individuals with part-time work (< 30 hours)
Paid employees with a wage less than 1.5 times the minimum wage in a given year
Individuals with contract work

5. What we know … List is not exhaustive No agreed upon definition
Impacts are quantifiable and qualifiable
Weak understanding of rural specific impacts
Worker left to manage impact

6. Impacts Health Economic Workplace Employee Development Social HEALTH
Lower overall health (Lewchuk et al., 2003)
Few health and safety standard met at work (Block ,2010)
Employee more likely to be injured, less likely to take time off (Virtanen et al., 2005)
Reduced mental health, looming fear of being let-go, no job security
ECONOMIC
Decreases productivity
More toxic work environments
Less healthy and more dangerous than traditional unemployment, no safeguards for people precariously employed
WORKPLACE
Systemic disempowerment
No employee workplace control
Decay of trust
SOCIAL
Less agency
Negative spillover into home-life, inability to connect with family
Reduced social networking ability, which is often how jobs are found

7. Precarious Employment
A significant loss of manufacturing jobs in Ontario has shifted employment trends away from full-time, permanent, unionized work with benefits towards part-time, less permanent, precarious, jobs.
This trend has unprecedented impacts on the social, emotional and physical health of rural communities.
(Benach and Muntaner 2007; Ferrie 2001; Lewchuk 2015; McLaren 2015; Noack and Vosko 2011; Tiessen 2014)

8. The Plan Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Contextual Analysis Case Studies
Review employment trends
Consider different census divisions and trends
Ray!
Contextual Analysis
What is the precarious work experience in rural communities?
Key informant interviews
Case Studies
Capture experiences
Discuss success strategies
Report
Year 1 Year 2 Year Year 4
identifying successful strategies used by communities to mitigate the negative effects of precarious employment; and describing the experience of rural workers engaged in precarious employment.
I’ll share with you where I am now in the context of my analysis – I’m capturing PE as a systemic problem here you can see…

9. Precarious employment in rural Ontario
Legend
Causation
Impact
Stock
_______
Relation to
Drain on
Decreased voting/ political engagement
Social Trust
Marginalized employees: mostly women, new citizens
Social Isolation
Reduced training opportunities
Social tax base
Increased entrepreneurial endeavours
Reduction of manufacturing jobs
Precarious employment in rural Ontario
Low political commitment to change
Reduced agency
Low labour market diversity
Employer first mentality
No agreed upon definition
Unstable income
Poverty
No benefits: medical, dental, vision, pension, childcare
Inability to move forward in life
Discontent life
Mental health triggers
Community connected-ness
Reduced physical health
Manifestation of mental health issues

10. References
Benach, J. and C. Muntaner Precarious employment and health: developing a research agenda. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 61(4): 276–277.
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation. (2015). State of Rural Canada Report. Editors: Markey, Breen, Lauzon, Gibson, Ryser, Mealy. Retrieved from
Ferrie, J. E Is job insecurity harmful to health? Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 94(2):
McLaren, D. Final Report of the Precarious Work Group. Peace and Justice Grey Bruce. Jan 2015.
Lewchuk, W. ed The Precarity Penalty: The impact of employment precarity on individuals, household and communities - and what to do about it. Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO), McMaster University, United Way Toronto.
Noack, A. M. and F. Vosko Precarious Jobs In Ontario: Mapping Dimensions Of Labour Market Insecurity By Workers’ Social Location And Context Vulnerable Workers And Precarious Work. Commissioned by the Law Commission of Ontario.
Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, 2008.
Tiessen, K. Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives, Seismic Shift: ‘Ontario’s Changing Labour Market’, Mar 2014.