Those with limited literacy are more likely than others to be or to become poor. Labour force participation rates are relatively low, and unemployment rates comparatively high, for those with limited literacy or education.⁸ The average income of adults with fewer than nine years of schooling is less than three-quarters that of the overall average. Among adults with fewer than nine years of schooling, in 1985, 61% had incomes less than $10,000.⁹ This income level would place people in almost all parts of the country below official poverty lines.

It is especially significant that the employment situation of the undereducated is worsening, relative to other groups. This can be seen in shifts of overall ratios of employment to population in recent years. These have declined for adults with fewer than nine years of schooling even as they have increased for the adult population as a whole.¹⁰ Take for example people aged 25-44 — those most active in the labour force. Between 1981 and 1988, the overall employment-population ratio for this age group increased over 3 points, from 75.3% to 78.8%. For those in this age group with fewer than nine years of schooling, it decreased nearly 3 points, from 62.3% to 59.4%.

The same pattern shows up in another perspective on education and employment. Between 1981 and 1990, the labour force participation rate (the proportion of the adult population either working or seeking work) of those with fewer than 9 years of schooling decreased from 44.1% to 35.5%. This participation rate for the less educated has been decreasing since at least the mid-1970s. Also between 1981 and 1990, the unemployment rate of those with fewer than 9 years of schooling increased from 1.21 times the overall rate, to 1.54 times the overall rate. Of those who experienced long-term unemployment (over six months) in 1988-9, only 47% were at Statistics Canada's level 4 of reading ability; whereas of those who were unemployed but for shorter periods, 67% were at this top reading level.¹¹

Although literacy is related to poverty, it must also be said that getting literacy does not guarantee getting out of poverty. That possibility is also limited by minimum wage rates, vocational training policies, and the structure of the labour market. None of these are planned to help people escape poverty.