People making transitions

Transitions to employment in Canada must be considered within the context of a volatile labour market. To comprehend the magnitude of the issue and characteristics of transitions better, the CLFDB commissioned a study of the labour market from Statistics Canada. The report, Getting a New Job in 1989-90 in Canada, is based on data from the Labour Market Activity Survey (LMAS; available from the CLFDB). Information from this study is presented in this section to show the number of people making transitions into employment, establish the profiles of these individuals, and identify the particular challenges facing the equity groups. Because the transition of students entering the workforce cannot be adequately described from the LMAS data, the recent School Leavers Survey and The Class of 1986 are referred to in subsequent sections.

We discovered several important limitations in the LMAS -- it does not cover the aboriginal population, its sampling frame limits the information available for members of visible minorities and people with disabilities, and it was discontinued in 1990. This prompted us to recommend that the CLFDB commission research into the transition situation of the equity groups. Summaries of these reports are presented in Appendix B. The full reports are available on request from the CLFDB.

Magnitude of the population undertaking transition

The LMAS showed the distribution of the Canadian working age population by their employment status in 1989 and 1990 (Figure 13). The shadowed boxes highlight groups who experienced one or several transitions into employment or wanted to work but did not. Over the 2-year period, almost a third of those aged 16 to 69 who did not spend any time in school made at least one transition into employment (28%). Many experienced more than one transition, as the data reveal that close to 6 million new jobs were started by these people -- an average of 1.5 jobs per person. By comparison, 8.5 million people (54%) held a job with the same employer for the whole period.