It is widely believed that individuals with greater knowledge, skills and desirable personal attributes have a higher likelihood of experiencing labour market success than those with less. The knowledge and skills of workers are known to be a major factor in productivity, innovation and technological change (Green and Riddell, 2001; Desjardins, 2004; Coulombe, Tremblay and Marchand, 2004). Furthermore, a workforce involved in continuous learning is an advantage in a global economy characterised by rapid change. A strong foundation in literacy and numeracy is the basis for the acquisition of further knowledge.
In the first part of this chapter several labour force outcomes and their relation to proficiency in the four domains measured - prose and document literacy, numeracy and problem solving - are examined. The second part of the chapter looks at participation in adult education and learning activities and its relationship to proficiency.
This section presents the employment outcomes of Canadians 16 to 65 years of age in six regions of the country: Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, British Columbia and the Territories. Due to small sample sizes for certain categories, it is necessary to limit our observations to regional rather than provincial statistics. Overall results for Canada are also shown.
At the Canada level, irrespective of the domain assessed, those who are employed have average proficiency scores higher than those who are either unemployed or who are not in the labour force (Figure 4.1).1 Those who are unemployed or out of the labour force have average scores corresponding to Level 2 proficiency in prose and document literacy and in numeracy while those employed have average scores at Level 3.
There is clearly a relationship between literacy proficiency and employability. About 62 percent of employed Canadians have average document literacy scores at Level 3 or above (Figure 4.2). In contrast, over half of unemployed Canadians have document literacy scores below Level 3 – the desired threshold for coping with the rapidly changing skill demands of a knowledge-based economy and society.