The ACTEW Blog

Last week Statistics Canada reported that:

For the second straight month, full-time work increased while part-time employment fell. Adult women accounted for most of June's increase in full-time and all of the decline in part-time employment.

Earlier this year, when Stats Canada released its 2006 Labour Force Survey which highlighted the tremendous employment gains among women, we had questions on this blog about what sort of employment gains these were. Currently women are far more likely than men to be employed in part-time and precarious employment situations, at low wages and without benefits, job security, or even basic employment rights.

This latest information from Stats Canada shows that at the national level, at least, women are getting more full-time work, although the compensation levels and stability of this work is still unclear.

At the provincial level, there's a different story for working women. While the number of working women has been increasing, the Government of Ontario's Monthly Labour Market Report for May indicates that, contrary to the national picture, more women in Ontario are working part-time than in the last five years. In May of last year, 766,000 women held part-time positions, whereas this May, 827,000 women worked part-time. Numbers of women working full-time work in Ontario have been steadily rising over the last five years as well.

The provincial Monthly Labour Market Reports may be useful resources for those determining service directions and seeking funding for employment and training programs. The reports include metropolitan, regional, industry and sector specific data. Gender specific information is available only for part-time and full-time employment.

You can find the reports on this page of the Government of Ontario web site:
http://www.gov.on.ca/ont/portal/!ut/p/.cmd/cs/.ce/7_0_A/
.s/7_0_252/_s.7_0_A/7_0_252/_l/en?docid=004759

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

# posted by Actew : 2:06 PM