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An Assessment of the Employment Impact of Covid19 on Calgary’s Vulnerable Workforce

This research brief discusses the employment and financial security impacts of the economic shutdown on Calgary’s vulnerable workforce.

Highlights:

  • Women and youth were the hardest hit by the contraction in the economy. Female employment fell by 3.4% in March, a loss of 13,500 jobs. Youth employment fell by 10.7%, a loss of 8,100 jobs resulting in a 50% increase in the number of unemployed youth.

  • Industries and occupations hardest hit by the economic contraction were those in which low-waged and vulnerable workers were predominantly employed, namely the Retail Trade and Accommodation and Food Services industries, and Sales and Service occupations.

  • Based on the industry and occupational profile of Calgary’s vulnerable workforce, significant job losses are expected among low-income workers, visible minority workers, persons living alone, and recent immigrants.

  • Many households lack significant financial reserves which may result in greatly increased challenges meeting their basic needs if employment ends as well as long-term indebtedness and possible insolvency. Additionally, financial stress and lost income and employment can compromise mental and physical health.

Read the Full Brief.

This brief has been prepared as part of the Canadian Poverty Institute’s Post-Covid Recovery Project.

Decent Work and the New Economy Post-Recovery

The Canadian Poverty Institute leads a Collective Impact Initiative, the New Economy Roundtable.  Join CPI Director Derek Cook and Roundtable member Kate Siklosi of the Ian Martin Group (a B Corp), in this podcast where they discuss their focus on increasing the number of people in "decent work" in Ontario, and how this focus is even more important coming through the COVID crisis into both economic and social recovery. 

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A Post-Covid Canada: Bouncing Back or Bouncing Forward?

If you gaze across our shuttered cities right now at the beginning of April, you may see all around you the budding of spring. Although the human world might have mostly come to a shuddering stop, birds still return from their migrations, branches still thicken as leaves prepare to burst and bulbs still wait in the ground to rise up. And so we are reminded that, difficult though it may be to imagine, this too shall pass. Yet, while we may be reasonably certain of what each recurring season will look like, we have only a murky glimpse of what our human world will resemble once this has all passed. What we are coming to appreciate is that it will be remarkably different than the one we inhabited before COVID19 gripped us in a death choke mere weeks ago. In this article, CPI Director Derek Cook reflects on the vulnerabilities that left us exposed to this pandemic and what opportunities may lie ahead for a post-Covid Canada.

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Tried & True: Using an Endowment to End Homelessness

There is lots of discussion about how to end homelessness and to provide adequate/appropriate housing for vulnerable citizens in Alberta and beyond. One of the issues that service providers face is that when government money is given to them to build low-income properties, as soon as the money is spent, there is no guarantee of further government funding for capital projects. In this post, Dr. John Rook offers a a proposal, with historic precedents, for a model that would ensure a never-ending funding supply for housing.

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