Jackman-Atkinson: The past and future

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Published on Thursday, April 10, 2014

By: Kate Jackman-Atkinson

myWestman.ca

Few issues are of greater importance to Canadians than employment.  We care about health care, education and infrastructure, but mostly, we care about being able to earn an income and that means we care about jobs.

Since 2009, the employment rate has been rising steadily, which is good news for those looking for a job. In February, the most recent data, the unemployment rate sat at seven per cent, more or less unchanged since last August.

Last week, Statistics Canada released two reports about Canadian workers between the ages of 25 and 34.  The studies looked at the occupational profile and overqualification of young workers in Canada from 1991 to 2011.  The first study looked at whether today’s young graduates and non-graduates are working in the same occupations as their counterparts were 20 years ago. The second study looked at changes in the proportion of those who are ‘overqualified’ for their job, with a focus on university graduates.

Overall, the studies found that during that time frame, young Canadians were more likely to be employed in professional occupations, but that a portion of them were working in occupations requiring lower levels of education than they possessed.

The findings corroborate what we have seen anecdotally. 

The first study found that between 1991 and 2011, the proportion of young workers with a university degree rose from 19 per cent to 40 per cent among women and from 17 per cent to 27 per cent among men. Over the same period, the proportion of young male and female workers in professional occupations—those that require a university education—also rose and the proportion of young men and women who worked in occupations requiring a high school education or less was down.

In both 1991 and 2011, the three most common occupations held by young women with a university degree were registered nurses, elementary school and kindergarten teachers and secondary school teachers. These occupations accounted for more than 20 per cent of all female university graduates in both years.

Among men with a university degree, the three most common occupations in 2011 were computer programmers and interactive media developers, financial auditors and accountants and secondary school teachers. Similar occupations topped the list of young male university graduates in 1991.

The flip side of the coin is overqualification.  This occurs when people have educational credentials that exceed the skill level required to do their job. One measure of overqualification is the proportion of individuals with a university degree who work in occupations requiring a high school education. The study excludes those working in “management” occupations.

Interestingly, the study found that 18 per cent of both male and female university graduates aged 25 to 34 were overqualified in 2011. This number is more or less the same as it was in 1991, despite an increase in the number of university graduates.

Overall, these numbers go against the common narrative that the country is full of university grads working at low paying, low skilled jobs.  But looking closer, we see this reality likely holds true for some graduates.

The study found that about one-third of working men and women with a university degree in humanities were overqualified in 2011. However, fewer than 15 per cent of men and women with a university degree in education, health related fields, architecture or engineering were overqualified.

Older workers were less likely to be overqualified and location also played a role. Young workers in Manitoba and British Columbia were more likely to be overqualified than Ontario residents.

As we look to the future, the statistics point to a reality that’s much more positive than we might be led to believe.  Locally, there were 13 help wanted ads in last week’s Neepawa Banner and Rivers Banner.

There are lots of jobs but, as always, the challenge is to make sure that there’s a match between the skills employees have and the ones employers want.