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March 18, 1997
Study shows poor families losing market share
Ottawa -- A study released today by the CCSD called Left Poor by the Market: A look at family poverty and earnings shows that poor families fare worse in the labour market than they did 10 years ago. Study authors Grant Schellenberg, CCSD research associate, and David Ross, CCSD executive director, compared labour market conditions in 1984 and 1994, two similar points in the business cycle. They found that families living below the poverty line experienced a decline in wages and that fewer of them were actively seeking employment.
Hardest hit were families headed by young adults (under age 35) and lone parents. Poor families headed by adults between the ages of 54 and 65 years also lost ground over the decade, as rates of unemployment for that age group climbed. The authors found that the most severe drop in average earnings of poor families occurred in Ontario, and that poor families in New Brunswick experienced the most improvement in their situation.
"Clearly, the lack of jobs, and a decrease in minimum wages over the decade have hurt Canada's lowest income earners hardest," says Schellenberg.
"We undertook this study because governments today are reducing public spending on social programs, with the expectation that poor families will be able to increase their self-reliance through their own earnings from the marketplace. Unfortunately, this report suggests that the marketplace is in an even weaker position than it was a decade ago to provide all families with earnings that would take them above the poverty line," says Ross.
"More than half a million Canadian families relied on public income supports to keep them above the poverty line in 1994. Without those government transfers, the number of poor Canadian families would have jumped by 56 per cent that year. And the average depth of poverty would have gone up by 70 per cent, or $5,700 per poor family," says Schellenberg.
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Left Poor by the Market - Related Material
Canadian Council on Social Development,
309 Cooper Street, 5th Floor,
Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 0G5
Tel: (613) 236-8977, Fax: (613) 236-2750, Web: www.ccsd.ca, Email: council@ccsd.ca
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