Good jobs in good workplaces" : De bons emplois assortis de conditions de travail agréables" : considérations sur les défis du marché de l'emploi à moyen terme

A key issue for labour market policy is the increased segmentation of the job market between ‘precarious jobs’ and ‘core jobs.’ Macro-economic factors and the ‘social safety net’ can play a major role in countering the growth and social implications of precarious work, as well as the problem of work intensification in core jobs. [...] For example, the degree of slack in the job market is a huge influence upon employer investment in training for the unskilled, attention to the unrecognized skills and credentials of new immigrants, relative pay levels by skill, employer willingness to balance demands of work and family, and so on. [...] But, earnings inequality is at a significantly greater level than in 1989, as indicated by both the gap between the top and the middle and the top and the bottom of the annual market income distribution. [...] Throughout most of the 1990's, between one-quarter and one-third of Canadian families experienced at least one spell of unemployment in a given year, and the risk of unemployment is concentrated among the relatively uneducated and unskilled. [...] With longitudinal surveys, such as SLID still in their infancy, we lack good data and analysis on medium and long-term labour market trajectories of precarious workers, and the role played by education and skills (including recognition of foreign skills and credentials); discrimination in employment on the basis of race, gender and ability, and the role of structural change which can quickly deval