A BRIEF NOTE CONCERNING THE BASIC STATISTICAL DATA

This chart and other information in Ottawa s Hidden Workforce is partly based on a Statistics Canada study done in 1992, Survey of Persons Not in the Labour Force. Many other sources of data were also used and referenced in Ottawa s Hidden Workforce.

This Statistics Canada report was a national study (i.e. not confined to the Ottawa C.M.A.), the only one of its kind ever done to date and was triggered by the recession of the early 90 s.

It might therefore be argued by some people that the information is out of date, as a reason for casting doubt on the credibility of the Ottawa s Hidden Workforce report and hence the author.

In this connection, the author would point out that there is an obvious necessity for surveys like the Survey of Persons not in the Labour Force to be done on a regular basis to keep the information up to date as far as reasonably possible. In this case, the responsibility lies with the federal government. The importance of this will be readily apparent to the reader, now that he / she is aware that the majority of unemployed people do not show in the regular HRDC Labour Force Surveys for Canada as a whole, the individual Provinces and the Census Metropolitan Areas.

Some factors which influence the breakdown of the numbers within that group, Not in the Labour Force, and in particular the numbers who are in fact real-term unemployed / who could potentially work, are:-

(a) Changes in Employment Insurance legislation. Since the 1992 Statistics Canada study, fundamental changes to the legislation became law on July 1^st 1996. Some overall reduction of benefits seems to have occurred, but another important change was the introduction of the Reach-Back program which extended the eligibility period for commencement of any E.I.-funded re-training program (such as ON-SITE) by 3 years beyond the point where somebody’s E.I. benefits would otherwise have expired.

(b) The composition of the group, in terms of age. Since 1992 this will have changed significantly on account of the effects of the baby boom generation.

(c) Immigration policy, which has since changed with the objective of admitting 300,000 people to Canada annually. It is reasonable to suppose that this will have led to a corresponding increase in the numbers of immigrants having difficulty getting work.

(d) Changes in provincial social assistance programs / province - funded re-training programs and work fare.

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