The recession has caused serious job losses all over Canada. It is predicted that the unemployment rate will reach almost 10% by 2010. In August 2009, the unemployment rate was 8.7%. Middle-aged men in industries such as manufacturing and construction have especially been hit by job cuts. Also younger people looking for jobs around the age of 15-24 have been seriously affected by the deteriorating economic conditions. The youth unemployment rate has risen to 16.3% which is twice more than the adult unemployment rate. Under and post-graduate students have had more difficulty finding work now than in the past few years. Many come out of university and cannot support themselves so they have to move back in with their families. During the past summer, students trying to find summer jobs were not successful and those that did, worked less average hours than previous years, which equals to less money being made. The federal government is helping by providing additional funding to create summer job opportunities for students to work in non-profit, public or private sectors. This program is called “Canada Summer Jobs”. Ministers of Cabinet, who are part of the executive branch of government, are behind this program, such as the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.
Unemployment is a major source of poverty in Canada. This is mainly caused by the short duration of unemployment benefits. In some cases, poverty leads to homelessness because people cannot afford to pay their bills. Some may have to make use of emergency shelters and some may have to live with friends or families. Recently, the executive and legislative branches of government have agreed that employment insurance should be extended to 50 weeks for the next 2 years because the overall unemployment rate is expected to rise. The judicial branch will help because they will have to deal with matters regarding employment insurance disputes.
The average retirement age for people is 55. Now people are saying that if you haven’t saved enough money for your retirement, then it will be “Freedom 75” instead of “Freedom 55”. Some people might have used up their savings for retirement, so they would have to work longer to pay off mortgages or debts. The older you get, the less chances that you will be hired since the unemployment rate is still very high. The government helps by setting up investment accounts called RRSP which stands for Registered Retirement Savings Plan. The RRSP can reduce the amount of income tax that a person pays, which is controlled by the legislative branch of government.
Canada’s labour market typically takes a long time to recover from recessions. However Canada is improving from recession because unemployment has dropped 0.3%, lowering the rate down to 8.4%. Although there are signs that Canada is slowly recovering, recession and unemployment are still important issues to the government today.
