UNIT 3: LABOUR FORCE TRENDS

This Unit extensively documents all the major labour force trends in Canada, mainly using data from Statistics Canada. This is perhaps the most "empirical" Unit in the course, in the sense that it presents many statistical trends and patterns. But what students will gain from all these numbers is, first, a clear understanding of employment and labour force patterns in Canada and, second, an ability to use the best available evidence to critically "test" claims made (often in the media) about present or future work trends. Briefly, the trends examined range from labour force participation patterns and changing occupational structures to part-time work and unemployment. We examine social, demographic and economic factors influencing labour force trends. At the same time, the impact of labour force changes on aspects of Canadian society, such as gender roles and income inequality, are also considered. The Unit ends with a far more cautious, empirically-grounded discussion of the future of work than typically found in popular accounts of this topic.

Unit Objectives

After completing this Unit, students should be able to:

    Define the leading employment and labour market indicators, and where to find reliable data on these.
    Discuss the development of major labour force trends.
    Explain what it means, in both industrial and occupational terms, to say that Canada is a "service economy".
    Assess the major causes and consequences of unemployment.
    Explain the significance of changes in labour markets and occupations for Canada's class structure.
    Describe major gender, age and regional variations in labour market, occupational and industrial trends.
    Document the trend toward non-standard work and explain its significance.

Readings (113 pages)

Krahn and Lowe, Work, Industry and Canadian Society:

Lowe and Krahn (eds.), Work in Canada: Readings in the Sociology of Work and Industry:

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Section 1: Who Participates in the Labour Force?

Thought Questions As you read, keep the following questions in mind: 1. What influences whether or not an individual participates in the paid labour force? 2. What is the social and economic significance of unpaid work?

Reading Assignments

Krahn and Lowe, Work, Industry and Canadian Society: Chapter 3, "Canadian labour force trends," pages 60-67. Lowe and Krahn (eds.), Work in Canada: Readings in the Sociology of Work and Industry: 2.3 Lawrence F. Felt and Peter R. Sinclair, "'Everyone does it': unpaid work in a rural peripheral region."

Key Concepts

To review key concepts encountered through the reading, prepare your own explanations of each of the following. Sometimes it is useful to compare related terms, as indicated.

Study Questions

When you have completed the assigned reading, test your understanding of the material by answering the following study questions.

    Identify the main sources of labour force data in Canada.
    Describe how labour force participation rates in Canada have changed during this century.
    Discuss the key factors responsible for the historical changes in male and female labour force participation rates.
    Explain how age helps us to understand patterns of labour force participation.
    Document what important forms of work get overlooked if we restrict our analysis only to paid employment.
    Describe what Felt and Sinclair, in their article in Work in Canada, consider to be the main forms of activity in the informal sector study of rural Newfoundland, and discuss how this unpaid work forms a basic part of social life in the region

Practice Exercise

Observe the level of labour force participation in your immediate neighbourhood or community. Now look beyond the formal labour force. What other forms of work, paid or unpaid, are important for your neighbours? Taking the perspective of Felt and Sinclair in their article, examine how people's activities in the paid labour force are integrated with their household, childcare, and informal sector activities.

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Section 2: Work in the Service Economy

Thought Question

As you read, keep the following question in mind:

    Why is it necessary to examine the diversity of employment within the service sector?
    What evidence suggests that major sources of inequality are being created within the service sector?

Reading Assignments

Krahn and Lowe, Work, Industry and Canadian Society:

Lowe and Krahn (eds.), Work in Canada: Readings in the Sociology of Work and Industry:

Key Concepts

To review key concepts encountered through the reading, prepare your own explanations of each of the following. Sometimes it is useful to compare related terms, as indicated.

Study Questions

When you have completed the assigned readings, test your understanding of the material by answering the following study questions.

    Explain why it is accurate to refer to Canada as a "service economy."
    Explain how the distinction between upper tier and lower tier industries captures the diversity of employment conditions within the service sector.
    Identify the major gender differences in industry of employment.
    Discuss how age is a key factor in determining who works in low-status jobs.
    Define non-standard employment.
    Assess Krahn's argument, in his article in Work in Canada, that there is a growing distinction between good jobs and bad jobs in the service sector.

Practice Exercise

Based on your own observations, assess the usefulness of the concepts of upper-tier and lower-tier sectors in the service economy for describing employment differences. Now include non-standard jobs in your analysis, determining which of the service industries you would most likely expect to find this kind of work. Are these industries mainly in the lower-tier? The purpose of this exercise, as you have no doubt guesses, is to encourage you to judge the accuracy of the analytic concepts being used in the readings.

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Section 3: Occupation, Class, and Region

Thought Questions

As you read, keep the following questions in mind:

    How has occupational change reshaped the class structure of Canadian society?
    What role does geographic location (region, community) play in defining the work opportunities and experiences of Canadians?

Reading Assignments

Krahn and Lowe, Work, Industry and Canadian Society:

Key Concepts

To review key concepts encountered through the reading, prepare your own explanations of each of the following. Sometimes it is useful to compare related terms, as indicated.

Study Questions

When you have completed the assigned readings, test your understanding of the material by answering the following study questions.

    Discuss how occupational changes have been associated with changes in the gender composition of occupations.
    Document the historical trends in self-employment and their implications for Canada's class structure.
    Assess the usefulness of Eric Olin Wright's definition of social classes for understanding the Canadian class structure.
    Outline the main regional variations in employment.
    Discuss some of the main risks associated with economic reliance on natural resources.
    Illustrate some of the main features of work in single-industry communities.

Practice Exercise

Apply the themes of gender, class, and region to the occupations in your community. Observe the following: how the occupational structure is gendered; the ways in which occupations give rise to distinct social classes; and the influence of regional industrial development on occupational opportunities. Your observations may only be general, but try to get a feel for what it is like to do this kind of sociological analysis.

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Section 4: Unemployment

Thought Questions

As you read, keep the following question in mind:

    Who are the unemployed and what factors account for their joblessness?

Reading Assignments

Krahn and Lowe, Work, Industry and Canadian Society:

Key Concepts

To review key concepts encountered through the reading, prepare your own explanations of each of the following.

Study Questions

When you have completed the assigned readings, test your understanding of the material by answering the following study questions.

    Identify what the official unemployment rate includes and excludes.
    Document the long-term trend in Canadian unemployment rates for both males and females.
    Outline the main reasons for regional differences in unemployment.
    Explain why young workers are more vulnerable to unemployment than older workers.
    Assess the commonly held views about why people are unemployed in light of scholarly research on the causes of unemployment.
    Identify the main reasons countries such as Sweden, Japan and Germany have such relatively low unemployment rates.

Practice Exercise

Imagine that you have just been appointed to a Royal Commission with the goal of finding solutions to the problem of high unemployment. Based on your assessment of the reading for this Section (and any pervious readings you consider relevant), what would you recommend? Also present the rationale for your recommendations, based on an analysis of the causes of high unemployment.

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Section 5: Non-Standard Work

Thought Questions

As you read, keep the following questions in mind:

    What are the advantages of non-standard work, particularly part-time work, for employers and employees?
    Conversely, what are the disadvantages of non-standard work arrangements for employers and employees?

Reading Assignments

Krahn and Lowe, Work, Industry and Canadian Society:

Lowe and Krahn (eds.), Work in Canada: Readings in the Sociology of Work and Industry:

Key Concepts

To review key concepts encountered through the readings, prepare your own explanations of each of the following.

Study Questions

When you have completed the assigned readings, test your understanding of the material by answering the following study questions.

    Document how the length of the work week has changed in Canada historically.
    Refer to your notes from Section 2 in this Unit on non-standard work. Expand and refine your definition of non-standard work according to the new material presented in this Section.
    Describe the main trends in part-time employment, including the phenomenon of involuntary part-time work.
    Discuss the importance of temporary employment and part-year work in the labour force today.
    Explain the "paradox" of part-time employment for women, as described by Duffy and Pupo in their article in Work in Canada.
    Assess why, according to Duffy and Pupo in their article in Work in Canada, women often do not freely choose part-time work, even though the women themselves think they have exercised freedom of choice.

Practice Exercise

Take Duffy and Pupo's critical discussion of how much actual "choice" women exercise in opting for part-time employment, and apply it to all forms of non-standard work. On balance, do you think that workers in non-standard work situations prefer them to having a secure, full-time job?

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Section 6: Future Labour Market Trends

Thought Questions

As you read, keep the following questions in mind:

    What labour force trends are likely to have the greatest impact on the future of work in Canada, and why?
    What sorts of public policies would minimize the negative impact of the trends documented in the readings?

Reading Assignments

Krahn and Lowe, Work, Industry and Canadian Society:

Lowe and Krahn (eds.), Work in Canada: Readings in the Sociology of Work and Industry:

Key Concepts

To review key concepts encountered through the readings, prepare your own explanations of each of the following.

Study Questions

When you have completed the assigned readings, test your understanding of the material by answering the following study questions.

    Summarize the evidence (from this and previous Sections) which indicates growing polarization in the Canadian labour market.
    Assess the importance of human resource development for both employees and employers.
    Discuss the implications of Canada's immigration policies for the labour market.
    Identify the various ways that population aging has a direct affect on organizations, labour markets, and related public policy.
    Outline Foot and Veene's argument for the need to redesign organizational structures and careers.
    Using Gee and McDaniel's arguments and evidence, assess how present pension arrangements and retirement policies disadvantage women.

Practice Exercise

Which of the trends discussed in this Section do you consider to be most important for the future? Explain why you think so. Do the policy responses suggested in the readings (or in other relevant readings from the Course) provide adequate solutions? If not, what else needs to be done?

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