Canada’s low unemployment rate indicates it’s a job seeker’s market. Here’s why that’s often not the case | CBC News

Canada’s unemployment rate continues to hover around a near all-time low of five per cent, so you’d assume that landing a job is easier than ever. But there’s another narrative to consider.

“That’s still a million unemployed people, and that doesn’t tell the whole story,” said Jim Stanford, an economist and director of the Centre for Future Work, a research institute with operations in Canada and Australia.

“There’s probably another million underemployed people who have a job, but don’t work as many hours as they want to or use their full skills,” he said. “Then there’s lots of other people — probably another million — on the margins of the official labour force who would like to work but aren’t counted as officially unemployed.”

To be counted as in the official labour force, Stanford explained, you must be employed or available and actively seeking work.

“There are many discouraged job seekers and others who say they’d like to work, but don’t meet that criteria, so StatsCan doesn’t count them in the labour force,” he said.

Jennifer Thompson, 27, of London, Ont., is an example of someone scrambling to find a job that meets her skills and she’s able to take on. She’s currently in the Ontario Works program, which offers financial assistance, benefits and employment assistance.

“I’m a single mom taking care of my three-year-old and I just want to get off of OW as soon as possible,” Thompson said from the one-bedroom apartment she shares with her toddler son.

People are saying they can’t find workers because what they are offering is not sustaining.– Armine Yalnizyan, economist

Thompson just completed a hairstyling course at GA Wheable Centre, Adult and Continuing Education. She already earned a hairstyling diploma from Fanshawe College in 2018.

Thompson had hoped to land work at the nearby barber shop where she just wrapped an eight-week unpaid co-op and logged 140 hours — a place she had previously worked, but she wasn’t offered a job.

“Sport Clips hires both full- and part-time team members;” said Peter Kowal, president and chief operating officer, but it just depends on the needs of the shop at the time.

Now, Thompson has redirected her search and has submitted dozens of online applications to a variety of minimum-wage jobs.

“Just about everywhere,” she said about her job search. “Retail at the mall, host jobs at restaurants, Tim Hortons, anywhere retail, anywhere restaurant. Just about anything that I have the qualifications for or that don’t need much experience.”

Thompson joined the workforce at 16 and has a lot of retail experience.

So far, she has only heard back from one leaf blowing company and one salon, on the other side of town, so she’d need to take two buses. Since she’s the sole provider, and has to pick up her son on time at daycare, relying on city transit makes her nervous.

She also needs full-time hours, which she’s been hearing from peers seem harder to come by.

Many jobs not sustainable

“We hear a lot about the so-called labour shortage,” said Stanford. “But we hear it mostly from employers.”

“Employers don’t like that they have to look harder to find workers … and potentially even pay slightly higher wages than they used to in the past.” 

We often find people juggling two and three particular positions, and just struggling to make ends meet.– Paul Hubert, CEO, Pathways Employment Help Centre

Canada’s unemployment rate looks good on paper, but “it doesn’t tell you anything about the hours of work,” said economist Armine Yalnizyan, the Atkinson Foundation’s Fellow on the Future of Workers

“The question is not just, ‘I can’t find workers,’ it’s, ‘I can’t find workers at these wages or for these hours,'” she said.

“That is where we’re at in that sector. People are saying they can’t find workers because what they are offering is not sustainable.”

Refresh your resumé and hone your interview skills

“We often find people juggling two and three particular positions, and just struggling to make ends meet,” said Paul Hubert, chief executive officer of Pathways Employment Help Centre in London.

“A job at Tim Hortons, McDonald’s, whatever it happens to be, people are still struggling financially to make ends meet, to pay for rent, to pay for food.”

Pathways assists people with building better resumés and honing their interview skills, and sometimes that’s all it takes to land a better job, said Hubert.

Thompson is still hopeful she’ll find a job that works, and is inspired by her son to do so.

“It’s made me focus. I want to do better in life,” she said. “Before I used to think, ‘Oh, I can work at retail, a little retail job forever. But now it’s like I want somewhere I can expand, like somewhere you can grow with the company and take on management positions and full-time positions.’

LISTEN | Job seeker Jennifer Thompson tells London Morning why finding work isn’t so easy: