Ontario job market undergoing seismic shift: report

TORONTO – Ontario's labour market woes can't be blamed on a recession hangover – the underlying trouble is a long-term, seismic shift that requires new policy answers, says a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Ontario (CCPA-Ontario).

Key trends highlighted in the report:

• Ontario's well-paying manufacturing sector went from the bedrock of the economy at 18% of the labour market in 2000 to 11% by 2013 – a loss of 290,000 jobs;
• The growth in jobs was concentrated in the service sector – it represented 73% of jobs in 2000 and but rose to 79% in 2013;
• Involuntary part-time employment rose by 43% since 2000;
• Temporary and part-time work grew faster than full-time work;
• The recession wreaked more havoc: there remain 270,000 missing jobs since 2008;
• Ontario's long-term unemployment rate remains one of the worst in the country – there are 125,000 more unemployed workers in Ontario than before the recession. continue reading CCPA-Ontario Report

On the same shelf: 

• Ontario’s job market undergoing ‘seismic shift’ from full- to part-time jobs Ontario’s labour market is in tumult as the province slides from a workforce of steady full-time jobs to shaky part-time posts, warns a new study.thestar.com

CRA & IRS warn of telephone and email scams

• Canada Revenue Agency warns public of email fraud
• Canada Revenue Agency : Beware of telephone and email scams

  "To better equip taxpayers to identify possible scams, the following guidelines should be used:
  The CRA:
  

  • NEVER requests information from a taxpayer about a passport, health card, or driver’s license.
  • NEVER divulges taxpayer information to another person unless formal authorization is provided by the taxpayer.
  • NEVER leaves any personal information on an answering machine or asks taxpayers to leave a message with their personal information on an answering machine.

  When in doubt, ask yourself the following:
  

  • Am I expecting additional money from the CRA?
  • Does this sound too good to be true?
  • Is the requester asking for information I would not include with my tax return?
  • Is the requester asking for information I know the CRA already has on file for me?
  • How did the requester get my email address or telephone number?
  • Am I confident I know who is asking for the information?
  • Is there a reason that the CRA may be calling? Do I have a tax balance outstanding?"

• Fraudsters threaten South Asians in Calgary with deportation, jail

  "Members of Calgary’s South Asian community continue to be targeted by fraudsters and are now being threatened with deportation as well as jail time if they don’t comply with demands to send money.
  City police say for the last month, Calgarians of South Asian descent have received calls from scam artists posing as representatives from the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) or an agency with a similar acronym.
  The victims are told they have ignored written warnings to send overdue payments, and are instructed to wire money or purchase and send pre-paid debit cards.
  They have been threatened with jail time and even deportation if these demands were not met, said police, adding at least one person sent $2,000."

• Simcoe (Ontario) Couple warns others about CRA scam
• Hundreds of Calgarians targeted by CRA scam
• Income tax scammers strike again bclocalnews.com
• RATTAN’S RUMBLE: South Asian crooks targeting South Asian newcomers in Canada Revenue Agency scam Indo-Canadian Voice   
•  Peel Police – Warning of Ongoing Scam involving fraudulent communications from the CRA http://www.weeklyvoice.com
• Top 6 Canadian tax scams and how to protect yourself : Phishing; Charity scams; Tax-preparer fraud;  Identity theft; Tax-free RRSP withdrawals
• IRS warns of ‘largest ever’ nationwide phone scam   by CNN Wire: NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — If the phone rings and the caller says he represents the IRS, be suspicious.  That’s the warning from federal authorities, who on Thursday said a nationwide phone scam has stolen $1 million from thousands of unsuspecting people.
• South Asian Taxpayers Warned Against Telephone Scam  (IRS)| News India Times
• IRS watchdog warns of ‘largest scam of its kind’ with agency impersonators  washingtonpost.com

Canadian Federal libraries ... shutting down : Emerging impact on Canadian environment with books lying in dumpsters is 'Like a Book Burning,'

Impact on Canadian environmental history in news by Sean Kheraj :

"News reports across the country showed startling images of books and other documents lying in dumpsters with rumors that others may have been burned. The culling of these libraries involved what has been described as a haphazard free-for-all with members of the public and industry scooping up abandoned books and valuable so-called “grey literature,” unique internal government publications. The process of library consolidation and closure seems to have happened so quickly that books that were still out on loan were never recalled. And beyond the loss of material, we still do not know the extent of the personnel losses. As library staff get laid off, valuable human knowledge vanishes along with the books." continue reading more Nature’s Past – Episode 41: Closing Federal Libraries

• Dismantling of Fishery Library 'Like a Book Burning,' Say Scientists Harper government shuts down 'world class' collection on freshwater science and protection. By Andrew Nikiforuk
• Federal libraries, archives shutting down: Researchers, academics, genealogists losing important research tools for their work. May 02, 2012  CBC News
• Library cuts trigger fears of knowledge drain ottawacitizen.com
• Fisheries and Oceans library closings called loss to science ... 
• The Tyee - Dismantling of Fishery Library 'Like a Book Burning,' Say Scientists
  Harper government shuts down 'world class' collection on freshwater science and protection. The Harper government has dismantled one of t...
• Federal libraries, archives shutting down
  The federal government is eliminating a series of libraries and archives throughout different departments as part of the latest budget cu...
• TIME LINE: The Closure of Canadian Government Libraries, Archives and Research Collections
  Since 2007-2008 the argument of digitizing collections by politicians as a solution for cutting costs and closing libraries in Canada has..
• Library cuts in more than a dozen government departments ...  -- by  BY ANDREA HILL, POSTMEDIA NEWS JANUARY 26, 2014  

Destruction of documents ‘a last resort’

Library and Archives Canada said it is working closely with federal libraries on “issues related to reductions” and has received about 1,000 boxes of “material of historical value” from libraries forced to cull their collections. continue reading : POSTMEDIA NEWS

Work until you die: Lifelong labor becomes new normal

Whether by choice or necessity, more people are working past retirement age, 

By Eric PfeifferYahoo News

 "From 1990 to 2010, the percentage of workers 65 and older staying in the job market rose for both women (from 28.2 to 43.8 percent) and men (52.5 to 65.3 percent). ... There’s an interesting paradox happening in the U.S. labor market: today there are more incentives than ever for a healthy, prosperous retirement. Yet, over the same time period since investment options like 401(k)’s become available, people have been choosing to work further into their golden years..." continue reading Yahoo News

While the above is an American sample, does one have to guess the Canadian figures? 

Looks like, it is not necessary. You can build your own statistics based on some official trends, to know first, if you will get a job, and if yes, after how much of struggle, patience and eyes-breakers, and how will it be the new normal. 

An example is job prospect's for the grads at the Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto's one academic school: 

"For the last 30 years, about 50% of graduates in our field have succeeded in securing a tenure-track job within 5 years of graduation." (source: UoT)

Read the above numbers again: about 50% of thier grads have got in, and got in after waiting (upto FIVE years...) What will the other 50% get as a return on their investment???? What will those do who secure job in their waiting time...And, how long will they pay their overdue school bills, medical bills and the rest of the financial baggage. May be all of them will workout as a new normal, or work anyways in any capacity to make the ends meet. Bottomline is they will be also working until they die... See also: Decline of humanities; The Repurposed Ph.D. : Finding Life After Academia — and Not Feeling Bad About It NYTimes by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow

(Anonymous comment on this article: Academia is full of problems, and so is the rest of society. Why do people go to University? Not really to get education (they can get that online now), but to get a degree. And why do they need a degree? Because recruiters rely on labels and brands. And why do recruiters function that way? Because it is far more important to them to be able to justify a hiring decision to a semi-ignorant management, than hiring the best person for the job. And why is management semi-ignorant? Because, by and large, at the top of the pyramid it's not really about what you know but who you know. And in fact when you look at decision-making in academia you often see an enormous personal bias: very talented Ph.D. students who don't get along with faculty and must give up, very talented professors who don't get along with the tenured crowd and are rejected by the system etc.

Add all the students graduating in debt who will never find decent jobs because recruiters will mark them as unemployable for the "objective" reason they couldn't find jobs immediately after graduation, and you get a pretty grim picture. But all this mindlessness works very very well for a small fraction of the population who's never had a better time.)

See also on the  same shelf:

• How the graduate job market has changed over 2012: With a shoddy economy and more university leavers than ever to compete with, Anna Pitts takes a look at new trends in graduate recruitment over 2012 and how you should respond,  theguardian.com
• Public Education and Job Readiness: Why Is There a Disconnect ...