[Newsbot]

Title: Rise of the 'precariat,' the global scourge of precarious jobs
Category: Business
Posted By: andyt
Date: 2015-06-01 07:39:14
Canadian

[andyt]

T

$1:

he situation is likely worse than we think. For the "quality" of Canadian employment — meaning less job security and fewer benefits — is currently at a 25-year low, 10 per cent below what it was in the 1990s, according to the latest CIBC work quality index.

Even in the glittering horseshoe of Southern Ontario, barely half of working adults have full-time permanent jobs, and almost all job growth now seems only to expand the insecure work, the kind that has little prospect of outstripping inflation.

It's hard to escape the feeling that even as our societies grow richer we are, bizarrely, looping backwards.

"The GDP per capita keeps going up. The problem is that we're not sharing the wealth at all equitably," says Wayne Lewchuk of McMaster University who researches precarious employment. "In many ways we've gone back to a 1920s mentality"

[BartSimpson]

"Job security" is non-existent in a global market.

A smart person these days keeps their options open and the even smarter person takes control of their own fate by starting their own business so they are not subject to the whims of some c0cksucking accountant who decides that someone in India can do your job for 20% of what it costs for you to do it.

[andyt]

Sure, start a business servicing the oil industry in Alberta. Or go all in on a computer store when puters are selling like hotcakes, then watch your business dwindle away as sales start dropping, as happened to a friend of mine. He has an MBA, didn't make him able to forecast that trend.

As for jobs for India, more and more, jobs, even or especially the high level ones will be done by computer. If you know how to play with the big boys in finance, you're golden. Otherwise, even people who feel very secure will probably have a rude surprise at some point.

[martin14]

andyt andyt:

As for jobs for India, more and more, jobs, even or especially the high level ones will be done by computer. If you know how to play with the big boys in finance, you're golden. Otherwise, even people who feel very secure will probably have a rude surprise at some point.

Yup, you should watch out for your job at Timmies. Robots coming soon.

Funny, they don't seem to need to work for $15 an hour.

[Thanos]

andyt andyt:

Sure, start a business servicing the oil industry in Alberta. Or go all in on a computer store when puters are selling like hotcakes, then watch your business dwindle away as sales start dropping, as happened to a friend of mine. He has an MBA, didn't make him able to forecast that trend.

Agreed. If it's a person's fate to fail then all the pre-planning in the world isn't going to change a thing. It's a system that runs solely on the whims of those that will never lose, like some random Arab princes whose whims have wreaked economic destruction across the entire planet. No different than 2008, when the whims of the wealthy of Wall Street clobbered the global economy and walked away with even more money in their accounts and not a single punishment laid on even one of them for their behaviour (helps to when you own every politician in every party so you can have them re-write the laws so your behaviour isn't even described as 'criminal' anymore). This system isn't even broken because it's actually working entirely within the parameters of those who designed it. They win, always, which is exactly the way it's supposed to be.

Anyone outside of the aristocratic ranks who thinks they have control over what happens to them is nothing but a goddamn fool. It's either in the cards for you or it isn't. All the ridiculous 'power of positive thinking' BS to the contrary won't change a thing.

[herbie]

$1:

Sure, start a business servicing the oil industry in Alberta. Or go all in on a computer store when puters are selling like hotcakes, then watch your business dwindle away as sales start dropping, as happened to a friend of mine. He has an MBA, didn't make him able to forecast that trend.

Too many factors that no one could predict:
Brand names, people still stuck on that, margins too thin. Must offer financing, even at $500 levels. Only huge companies can.
Phones & tablets. Weren't there to predict how much market they'd take from computers.
I did well for a time, making my own. But sold out and went into repair only, zero expense, 100% profit. Failed to predict the price point would get so low people won't even fix things, thay'll just buy new ones.
I remember an employment counsellor in the 70s who berated me even thinking of a public sector job. Now those are the only ones with any level of job security.
Sadder even that so many think the solution is to fuck public workers over too. Making someone else's life as shitty as your own isn't bettering your situation

[OnTheIce]

Thanos Thanos:

andyt andyt:

Sure, start a business servicing the oil industry in Alberta. Or go all in on a computer store when puters are selling like hotcakes, then watch your business dwindle away as sales start dropping, as happened to a friend of mine. He has an MBA, didn't make him able to forecast that trend.

Agreed. If it's a person's fate to fail then all the pre-planning in the world isn't going to change a thing. It's a system that runs solely on the whims of those that will never lose, like some random Arab princes whose whims have wreaked economic destruction across the entire planet. No different than 2008, when the whims of the wealthy of Wall Street clobbered the global economy and walked away with even more money in their accounts and not a single punishment laid on even one of them for their behaviour (helps to when you own every politician in every party so you can have them re-write the laws so your behaviour isn't even described as 'criminal' anymore). This system isn't even broken because it's actually working entirely within the parameters of those who designed it. They win, always, which is exactly the way it's supposed to be.

Anyone outside of the aristocratic ranks who thinks they have control over what happens to them is nothing but a goddamn fool. It's either in the cards for you or it isn't. All the ridiculous 'power of positive thinking' BS to the contrary won't change a thing.

[Zipperfish]

Good argument for strong unions right there.

[OnTheIce]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Good argument for strong unions right there.

Yea, unions have done a great job with the manufacturing sector in Canada. Top notch.

[Zipperfish]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Yea, unions have done a great job with the manufacturing sector in Canada. Top notch.

Yes and now are clothes are made by virtual slaves in Bangladesh. Big step up there.

[OnTheIce]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Yea, unions have done a great job with the manufacturing sector in Canada. Top notch.

Yes and now are clothes are made by virtual slaves in Bangladesh. Big step up there.

Precisely my point.

Strong unions in Canada do little to nothing in a global economy.

[Zipperfish]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Precisely my point.

Strong unions in Canada do little to nothing in a global economy.

True. If Canadians would just do away with all those pesky labour laws like minimum wage and child labour and being allowed to quit your job, then we could compete in the global economy again!

I think unions give more powere to the workers, which they need right now because there is a huge transfer of wealth to the top right now.

[BartSimpson]

Minimum wage is a construct that keeps certain classes of people unemployed and dependent on public assistance.

Period.

[OnTheIce]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

True. If Canadians would just do away with all those pesky labour laws like minimum wage and child labour and being allowed to quit your job, then we could compete in the global economy again!

I think unions give more powere to the workers, which they need right now because there is a huge transfer of wealth to the top right now.

And what will that power do in a global economy? Not much.

With companies being mobile and able to move operations all over the World, the power of the union is irrelevant when the doors are closed.