KITCHENER, Ont. — The Canadian Auto Workers union has released a report it hopes will help people understand the human cost of job loss.
The union released a research paper Monday that tracked a random sample of workers in Toronto, Brampton, Ont., and Kitchener, Ont., many of whom lost their jobs only months before the beginning of the recession.
CAW president Ken Lewenza says monthly unemployment stats don’t tell the whole story.
He says nobody is talking about the kinds of jobs being created in Canada’s economic recovery, or about the people who are still falling “between the cracks” after the global recession.
The CAW study, conducted by a researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, takes a closer look at the health and well-being of those laid-off workers.
Among the study’s key findings — only 24 per cent of the laid-off workers surveyed were working at the time of the survey and of this group, about 70 per cent were working in part-time or temporary jobs.
Only 39 per cent found new jobs in manufacturing while the other 61 per cent were working in other sectors.
The report also identified a need to address issues related to older workers, women, immigrants and those who lack strong literacy skills.