FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Oct 20

Elder Poverty Is Growing In Both The U.S. And Canada

by bcurry

Employer pensions are not what they used to be.  An analysis done back in 2016  found that just 99, or about 20%, of Fortune 500 companies offered a “defined benefit plan” to new salaried employees in 2015.  This was down from 104 companies, or nearly 21% in 2014, and a dramatic fall from a decade earlier in 2005, when 248, or just over 48% of Fortune 500 firms had such plans.  Defined benefit plans provided pensioners with specific annual amounts of funds from a company pension following their retirement.  Instead, most companies began to offer “defined contribution plans”, leaving it up to employees to invest for their retirement through various financial institutions.  In 2022, the U.S. Labor Department reported that while 72% of civilian workers had access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, only about 56% took part in one.  Many other Americans without company pension plans have been forced to invest in a 401(k) (today’s No. 1 retirement vehicle in the U.S.) or other kinds of retirement savings.  The problem is that less than half of working Americans have access to a 401(k) plan.  Many who have a 401(k) at work opt not to participate, and many who do contribute often don’t save enough.  On top of which, many seniors with 401(k) accounts were negatively hit by the Great Recession.  A whopping 36 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.  As a result, Americans hitting retirement today frequently depend on Social Security as their only source of income, which wasn’t the program’s original intention as a supplemental plan.

In its annual retirement survey in 2007, the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. revealed that many middle-aged and older adults have serious concerns about their financial security in retirement and are doing almost nothing to shore up their finances.  As a result, the survey indicated that many people plan to “continue working in some capacity while retired,” including one of every two workers in the U.S.  The number of elderly Americans living in poverty is on the increase, particularly following the impact on employment during the pandemic.  Those 65 or older usually weren’t eligible for as much pandemic relief as families with children, thus eating further into their savings.  By 2020, the figure for elderly Americans living in poverty had fallen to 9.5%.  However, in 2021, even as the poverty rate sank for everyone else, it rose among seniors to 10.7%.

In 2009, it was estimated that only about one-third of working Canadian adults have pensions, the majority of which are administered by funds that have taken substantial financial hits with large, unfunded liabilities.  As in the U.S., Canadian companies are relying more heavily on defined contribution plans to lower their human resource costs.  Many elder Canadians have come to rely on government programs such as the Canada Pension Plan (into which they have to pay premiums while working), along with Old Age Security and Income Supplement payments for lower income older individuals.  Although partially indexed to inflation rates, payments under such plans have fallen behind recent cost of living increases.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), although today’s share of elderly people officially below the poverty line in the U.S. is low by historical standards, it remains among the highest in the developed world, including Canada.  Furthermore, today’s hyperinflation is further cutting into the incomes of seniors in both countries.  In addition, with fewer workers accessing company retirement plans, there is an increasing concern that younger workers may not be saving enough for their future retirements.  Experience has shown that they cannot rely solely on social security payments to live comfortable and active retirement lives, without having to remain in or re-enter the labour force.  Both countries have a growing aging population, led by more and more boomers leaving employment to enter into retirement.  Given that elder poverty is on the increase, one has to question what will be their quality of life after retirement.  What we need today are longer-term solutions, and not small short-term “band-aid” increases in government pension schemes or random handouts.  What we don’t need are governments willing to reduce current high levels of fiscal debt on the backs of seniors.  Companies as well need to attract and retain workers with better funded retirement benefits. 

Moreover, how we treat the elderly is a societal issue!  It’s obvious that as a society, we are indeed at a crossroads when it comes to this important issue.  Given the financial circumstances of most millennials and generations Y and Z, one cannot expect that they will be in a meaningful position to help their parents financially.  Given the projected growth in the proportion of seniors falling on or below the poverty level, there is an immediate serious need for governments, communities and individuals to come to grips with the problem.

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Sep 9

Forecasts For Canada’s Population Growth By 2041 Reveal Interesting Trends

by bcurry

Today, Statistics Canada’s Centre for Demography released a new set of detailed demographic projections to 2041 on immigration and ethnocultural diversity for Canada and its regions.  The release notes that these new projections reflect the targets of the 2022–2024 Immigration Levels Plan released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in February 2022, as well as the most recent demographic developments, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  What’s really of interest is the projected composition of Canada’s population and where the majority of people will be living.

The projections note that by 2041 Canada’s population will reach 47.7 million, up from 14.4 million in 2016.  More importantly, about 25 million of the future population will be immigrants or the children of immigrants born in Canada, accounting for 52.4% of the total population.  This compares to 40.0% of the total Canadian population in 2016.  The Canadian population in 2041 is projected to include 9.9 million to 13.9 million people born in Asia or Africa, depending on the projection scenario.  In 2041, about 2 in 5 Canadians will be part of a racialized group.  The concept of “racialized” population is derived directly from the “visible minority group” variable and therefore refers to the persons belonging to a visible minority group.  In terms of location in 2041, the vast majority of the immigrant population would continue to live one of Canada’s 36 census metropolitan areas (CMA), with Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver remaining the three primary areas of residence of immigrants.

Needless-to-say, all of these projections have massive implications for socioeconomic policies among the three levels of government: federal, provincial and municipal.  Canada today is recognized as multicultural society, increasingly having to apply a host of policies in the next two decades to deal with ethnocentricity, diversity, education, systemic racism, immigration, employment, etc., etc., to name a few.  Different regions and localities will incur diverse impacts, especially when it comes to resettlement and labour markets.  It can be expected that many of the racialized population will represent skilled labour and entrepreneurial capabilities.  One can expect that there will be a good deal of competition among localities and provinces to attract and accommodate skilled immigrants and entrepreneurs.  In addition, we anticipate that our aging population, those 65 and older, will continue to grow, which obviously will have a significant impact on health care resources.  A good proportion of the racialized population within the total population is expected to be younger than the population as a whole.  Future growth in the Canadian economy will greatly depend on this youth segment of the population, and governments will have to facilitate the addition of foreign labour to the labour market through efficient and effective settlement policies.

In general, both Canadian and American experts have long predicted future increased multicultural elements in both societies.  What the Statistics Canada report highlights is the fact that the projected trends, especially for the racialized population, will greatly increase and accelerate in the next couple of decades at a faster rate than previously forecast.  In order for both countries to benefit fully from these trends, governments must first recognize the projected population changes and their future impacts.  Like everything else, there will be those in society who will oppose such trends, which, unless many things change, appear to be inevitable.  The fact is that if we accept these projections, than we must begin now to develop and adjust many of our socioeconomic policies.  Not to do so would be somewhat catastrophic and regressive!

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Sep 5

Shouldn’t We Pay Health Care and Education Workers More Because of the Valuable Work They Do?

by bcurry

If there’s one thing to take from the pandemic is that workers in the health care sector and in our schools merit more pay than they currently have.  What could be more important than ensuring that our health and the education of our children meet today’s standards as modern industrialized countries?  Yet, the pandemic and an aging population have resulted in tens of thousands of teachers and health care workers to leave or retire from their profession.  The numbers don’t lie.  Take for example in the U.S., where recent statistics highlight that there is a massive teacher shortage, particularly severe in several states and many localities.  In Canada, the Canadian Nurses Association in a 2009 report predicted that Canada could see a shortage of 60,000 full-time nurses by 2022.  The estimate is based on a number of factors, including retirement projections, but of course doesn’t account for the serious impacts of the pandemic.

What is more disconcerting is the fact that within the teacher shortage, there are certain disciplines which are critical to developing a new labour force in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.  Up until now, in both Canada and the U.S. immigrants continue to be a major source of STEM labour.  In Canada, adult immigrants accounted for 44% of all individuals aged 25 to 64 with a university degree in a STEM field in 2016, compared with 24% in the United States.  Can we continue to rely on immigrants to fill those job vacancies in high tech industries?  The teaching profession has grappled with a labour supply issue in STEM for years.  For example, according to a March 2022 report by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, over the last decade, the number of teaching degrees and certificates conferred fell 27 percent in science and mathematics education.

On top of which, there are places that serve economically disadvantaged students where they are more likely to have vacant positions.  In lower income communities and in rural areas, school boards have a hard time attracting teachers to their schools.  We know certain types of teachers are also hard to attract, in particular STEM teachers and special education teachers.  As for special education teachers, the demand outpaces the supply.  Parents with autistic children or those with learning disabilities have complained, and rightly so, for a number of years about the lack of special education support in schools.  While something has to be done to encourage students enrolled in teachers’ colleges to become special education teachers, better pay and working conditions need to be promoted and implemented.

One of the things the pandemic has really shown the public is the value that nurses particularly bring to the health system.  As a result, I would hope that people recognize the importance that nurses play in making sure we all have access to care.  Interestingly, the media coverage during the pandemic did highlight the courageous acts by and commitment of nurses.  As a result, nursing colleges have seen a recent increase in applications within both countries.  However, burnout, wage competition with other sectors and early retirement has contributed to the current nursing shortage in the short-term.  When compared to health care workers in general, nurses continue to be underpaid given the extensive degree of training and responsibilities they have.

As a modern society, one needs to take a close look at where our priorities lie.  Everyone is touched by how well our health care and education systems work or don’t work.  Following the consequences of the pandemic for our children and aging population, we need to get our priorities straight.  This takes political and societal will and commitment to resolve these current specific worker shortage issues.  This is not something that technology alone can resolve.  These are people issues, requiring people solutions.  Unfortunately, up until now, most jurisdictions have been unable or unwilling to adequately address these immediate and long-term challenges.  I predict that within the next year, one will see this issue becoming increasingly a concern in both countries.

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Aug 22

Both Canada and the U.S. have something in common: Dismal Economic Outlooks

by bcurry

When I was studying economic theory in college, one phrase kept leaping out at me: “Economics is the dismal science.”  This was partly due to the fact that I could never really be convinced that the discipline of economics was anything but a science.  Instead, I preferred to think of the reality of economics being continuously influenced by political policies and institutional structures, including those in the international sphere.  Control over the world’s economies is much more institutionalized than ever before.  The current economic situation in North America really highlights this perspective, especially given the reaction of bodies such as the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and the Bank of Canada in dealing with the post-pandemic world.

In Canada, one is coping with the highest levels of inflation since 1995.  The U.S. is seeing the highest levels of inflation since the early 1980s.  On top of which, we’re getting economic data that is fluctuating quite rapidly, so it’s very hard to get a precise read on where the economy is at any point in time.  The additional fear now is that both these monetary bodies are increasing the prime rates in order to tackle this hyperinflation at a time when the economy is attempting to get back on its feet after the disastrous pandemic period — thus the concerns about a potential recession in both countries and around the world.

Now, you don’t have to be an economist to know that something’s wrong.  Filling up your gas tank, buying a home and purchasing groceries just got incredibly more expensive!  Governments blame much of the distress on post-pandemic supply chain problems and global fuel-food shortages due to the Russia-Ukraine war.  On top of which, there are suddenly skilled labour shortages in most countries, leading to increasing wage levels and low unemployment rates.  The current situation has particularly been led by Boomers, many of whom have chosen to retire.  An April paper by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond found that “the pandemic has permanently reduced participation in the economy.”  Due to the lack of and high cost of child care for example, many women are financially unable to return to the labour market.  In order to fill many jobs, countries are having again to look to immigration policies as a possible solution.

Recent blow-out jobs reports may have quieted claims that the U.S. is in a recession, but it did not end the mystery about the state of the economy or resolve questions about where it is headed.  Should a recession evolve in the U.S., past experience would suggest that Canada is not far behind.  Similarly, both federal governments are under the gun to do something about inflation — a major political issue.  However, as most analysts state, the current economic situation is something completely new and unprecedented in light of post-pandemic elements and the current global situation with respect to supply chains, especially in Europe.

Higher interest rates as a result of Federal Reserve Board and the Bank of Canada benchmark interest rate increases to control the hyperinflation will have an immediate impact on lowering economic growth.  Consumers feeling the hit will most likely have to cut back on expenditures, including the purchases of homes due to the subsequent rise in mortgage rates.  Whether or not we are on the brink of a major recession is still up in the air.  There is no sector of the economy that hasn’t been affected during this so-called recovery period. 

However, how about longer-term predictions?  As the famous British economist, John Maynard Keynes, once said: “In the long-run, we are all dead.”  He further noted that aggregate demand does not necessarily equal the productive capacity of the economy.  Instead, it is influenced by a host of factors —sometimes behaving erratically — affecting production, employment and inflation.  As of today, this definitely appears to be the case.  All any of us can do is hope to survive during the foreseen continuing turmoil within the markets and the economy in general.  In the spirit of economics as a ‘dismal science’, most economists for are not overly optimistic about improved short-term growth. 

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Aug 9

Would You Be Interested In A Four-Day Workweek?

by bcurry

Between 2015 and 2019, several large-scale trials in the public sector of a four-day workweek were carried out in Iceland.  The results showed that the trials turned out to be an “overwhelming success,” with many workers shifting to shorter hours without affecting their productivity.  Some of the trials’ key findings showed that a shorter week translated into increased well-being of employees among a range of indicators, from stress and burnout to health and work-life balance.  The idea of the four-day week has been gaining ground in countries like New Zealand, Spain and Germany.  In the U.S. and Canada, a small but growing number of firms are moving to a four-day workweek that runs from Monday to Thursday.  In addition, the pandemic created a situation where employers began to experiment with alternative working arrangements, ranging from remote work to a variety of hybrid work routines including a four-day workweek.  Employers are expected to continue offering alternative working arrangements as a means to retain existing employees and to recruit new workers, especially given the tight labour markets found in most countries.

Now, there is not really anything new about employers implementing a four-day workweek for interested employees.  Long before the pandemic, I can recall several employers, especially in the public sector, who instituted policies allowing for some employees, where applicable, to work for four days a week and with the same number of weekly hours and wages.  For certain employees, the additional day off meant that they could spend more time with their families and use the extra free time to improve work-life balance.

More recently, there are those that would argue that a four-day workweek would help to reduce our carbon footprint.  For example, one or more fewer commutes to and from work would be required each week.  Transportation is the biggest contributor to greenhouse emissions, especially for vehicles using gas or diesel.  In 2020, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the transportation sector accounted for about 27 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.  Commuting is a big part of that.  It’s noteworthy that global emissions plunged an unprecedented 17 percent during the coronavirus pandemic and the air quality in cities around the world showed a marked improvement.  In North America, the high cost of housing in urban cores has meant that many workers have bought more affordable homes in the outskirts, a trend increased during the pandemic by a significant percentage of workers working remotely from home.

In addition, Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College who researches work, consumption and climate change, noted that energy could also be conserved if less resources are needed to heat and cool large office buildings.  However, to reduce demands on electricity, buildings would have to be pretty well shut down entirely for a day.  According to Scientific American, when the Utah state government launched a four-day workweek trial among its employees in 2008, one report projected that shutting down buildings on Fridays would lead to a decrease of at least 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.  However, any potential energy-saving gains hinge on how companies and individuals use resources.  At a time when many companies are looking at ways to incur cost savings, the implementation of a four-day workweek might be appealing.

As more and more white-collar workers across the country settle into hybrid work routines, one thing is becoming clear: Nobody wants to be in the office on Fridays.  This premise came up time and time again in several related articles.  With hybrid working routines becoming more of a fixture in workplaces, it’s easy to see why employers are increasingly looking for more adaptable offices with more communal spaces and gathering areas instead of traditional cubicles or walled-in offices.  Issues surrounding work-life balance and healthy workplaces will continue to surface in the post-pandemic era.  Businesses and their workers will no doubt have to be more creative in developing appropriate alternative working arrangements, including possibly a four-day workweek.

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Aug 2

Return to Offices in Post-Pandemic Era

by bcurry

Over two years after the pandemic abruptly forced tens of millions of people to start working from home, disrupting family lives and derailing careers, employers are now getting ready to bring workers back to offices.  However, it appears that workers in North America’s midsize and small cities have returned to the office in far greater numbers than those in the biggest cities.  Offices apparently have filled back up fastest in areas where COVID lockdowns were shortest and where commutes are done by car, rather than by public transit. 

In light of the Omicron variants which are creating other waves, the fact that the COVID pandemic is not over has created a snag in how employers are dealing with remote and in-person work.  In particular, the situation has forced some large and major employers to delay a return to the office.  The pandemic has also pushed employees to look at the health and safety protocols of their jobs and to become more vocal about the level of risk and the hazards they are facing.  Recruiters note that regional differences in office attendance and flexible work are making for a bumpier job market, especially given the increased competition for skilled workers in the current labour market.  In certain cases, some companies are forced to advertise jobs where the work is primarily done remotely.

Back-to-office plans have to take into consideration a number of challenges in order to accommodate workers in a healthy and safety manner.  The era of stuffing people into offices like sardines is over.  The inadequacy and poor quality of many existing office buildings was simply illustrated by the conditions surrounding the pandemic.  Indoor ventilation, air filtration and overcrowding became major concerns given the fact that highly infectious COVID was shown to be primarily spread as an aerosol.  The interior of many office towers today are climate controlled whereby one cannot open the windows in order to increase air quality.  Improving the ventilation and filtration systems has led to increased costs for landlords and tenants alike.  Another cost has been the need to have more stringent and frequent cleaning practices.

With health restrictions lifting, many workers are being called back to the in-person workplace, which can bring up a number of different feelings.  Employers can help ease this transition by having a comprehensive return-to-work plan, and clearly communicating it to workers.  Besides potential physical health hazards, there is also a need to address potential psychological hazards given the anxiety and stress that some returning employees may incur.  A gradual return to the workplace may ease anxiety, possibly by allowing for partial in-person work in the initial stages of the return-to-work plan.  There may also be a degree of anxiety of employees working alongside people who have not been vaccinated for COVID.  The question of mandated vaccination of workers became a highly controversial issue during this pandemic, causing a major schism between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.  Employers will have to address the issue as a policy matter and communicate their policy in a clear and concise manner.  They will also have to acknowledge and follow up on worker concerns or complaints.  They will have to show compassion and understanding that workers, particularly those that are immunocompromised, may be stressed, harassed or feel anxious.

How long will employers remain flexible?  When the pandemic loosens its grip, inevitably bosses could well demand that people file back in, and pronto.  The real question is whether the return-to-office plan will be done in a gradual, effective and controlled manner.  Several serious issues will have to be considered by employers as part of their plan, as highlighted above.  If the plan is not well thought out and effectively communicated, the issue of employee retention will quickly surface.  The situation of each individual employee will have to be taken into account and continuously monitored at the outset.  Flexibility is a key.  Employers may incur additional initial costs but they will be worthwhile in the long run.

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Mar 4

Comparison of Workers’ Wages and Benefits Between the U.S. and Canada

by bcurry

In recent months there has been a lot of discussion about the impact of the pandemic on the labour market in both the U.S. and Canada.  Much of the discussion has now evolved around the issue of hyperinflation in both countries and the resulting worker demands for increased wages.  In addition, there has been a shift in the labour market itself whereby many workers who worked in certain sectors, in particular retail, tourism, services and restaurants, were laid off due to COVID-19 for months on end.  Now that the economies are supposedly reopening in both countries, some of these workers have decided not to return to those sectors, but to seek other more reliable and better paying employment.  Indeed, according to recent stats, there have been record levels of workers switching jobs, a trend that picked up markedly in the second half of 2021.

However, there are still signs that wage raises are stopping fall short of compensating for all of the higher prices.  In some private sectors, unions are now taking advantage of the inequalities and have moved to organize disgruntled workers, offering better wages and benefits.  An example of this is the American United Auto Workers (UAW) that is looking to organize Tesla workers.  Several Starbucks workers have been seeking to organize unions in Buffalo, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Knoxville, Tallahassee, Florida and the Denver area.  The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers promoted a two-year-long push to unionize thirty Amazon facilities in the U.S.  Generally, such attempts have been unsuccessful.  In Canada, where unionization is easier in the private sector under industrial relations laws, certain unions have been more successful in organizing workers in facilities run by union-resistant companies such as Wal-Mart and Starbucks.

Among the major differences between the two countries is the fact that Canada has a universal health system in place and more labour standards laws offering such benefits as paid sick leave, maternity and adoption leave, paid vacation leave and higher minimum wages.  Canada’s federal unemployment insurance program is national in scope, unlike in the U.S. where states have a lot more leeway to differentiate in their qualifying requirements, amounts and duration of unemployment benefits.  Moreover, the Canadian safety net for the unemployed has been strengthened in recent years, playing an important part in allowing unemployed workers to do lengthier job search, provide additional economic security and keep their job protection guaranteed under the law.

On top of everything, workers are looking at the huge profits made by certain companies during the pandemic, such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, Loblaws Canada, etc., etc.  Many believe, and rightly so, that they have not received their fair share of the record profits in the form of increased wages and benefits.  Instead, they see companies buying back billions of dollars in stock from investors and increasing the dividend rates given to investors by large amounts.  With companies declaring the end of the worst of the pandemic, previous increases in the form of risk pay are also quickly disappearing — this despite the fact that many of the pandemic risks still remain.

Moreover, the pandemic has had a significant impact on the labour markets of both countries.  Employers in both countries are being forced to compete for scarce labour due to the shift in the bargaining capabilities of workers, especially in light of today’s hyperinflation.  Indeed, wage increases are just one of many sweeteners that hungry firms are offering.  Also on the rise are perks like a four-day workweek — offered by some eleven percent of companies surveyed recently by the Payscale data firm —  as well as remote work, flexible schedules, free college tuition and other attractive benefits.

All in all, current hyperinflation will continue to cut into workers’ pay cheques.  The coming months will be difficult ones for both employers and workers.  Both Canada and the U.S. have similar labour markets, suggesting that significant adjustments will have to be made in each country.

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Jan 26

Canadian Trucker Protest Over Mandatory Vaccination Between U.S. and Canada

by bcurry

This weekend, in something called the Freedom Convoy 2022, hundreds of semi-trucks will be arriving in Ottawa from cities across Canada in order to protest vaccine mandates.  However, plain and simple, their reaction to the Canadian government’s January 15th imposition of a vaccination requirement for truckers entering Canada appears to be just another protest tied into anti-vaxxers’ movements.  Indeed, the largest national organization representing Canadian truckers, the Canadian Trucking Alliance, has denounced the protest.  The Alliance has already stated that 85 percent of its members have been fully vaccinated, roughly the same as for the Canadian population at large.  It has strongly denounced any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges and has urged all truckers to get inoculated.  However, the Alliance does not represent the majority of independent truckers who one would suggest are primarily involved in this protest, especially those in the West. 

On the other side of the border, the American administration has also imposed a mandatory vaccine requirement for truckers entering the U.S.  Indeed, it is interesting that Donald Trump Jr. this past Tuesday urged Americans on social media to follow the example of the Canadian trucker convoy’s fight against ‘tyranny’ and should carry out similar protests in the U.S.  Apparently, it is estimated that only half of American truckers have been vaccinated, not a dissimilar portion when compared to the general population in the U.S.  What concerns authorities is that the trucker convoy has become a lightning rod for far-right fringe, particularly those against public health measures and government restrictions in the fight against COVID. 

Despite claims that the vaccine mandates will negatively further exacerbate supply chain problems, in monitoring the volume of trucks crossing the border each day since January 15th, authorities have seen no measurable reduction in the number of trucks to date.  Last week, the Canadian Transport Minister noted that almost 100,000 trucks crossed the border — about the same as usual for this time of year.  Unfortunately, those opposed to vaccine mandates have attempted to frighten Canadians by claiming that there will be food and other materials shortages as a result of the government’s policies.  For the vast majority of Canadians, who support COVID vaccination and such mandates, the real issue is in the fight to control the pandemic’s current wave and reduce its terrible impact on a stressed-out health care system. 

Moreover, studies have shown that vaccine mandates work in increasing vaccination rates.  For example, recent research from Simon Fraser University economists indicated that the mere announcement of vaccine mandates last fall led to an average 66 percent surge in new, first-dose vaccinations in Canadian provinces.  From a constitutional perspective, whether a government can mandate vaccines depends on what exactly a new law says.  Canadians have rights to make decisions about vaccination but these rights are not absolute.  And having rights does not mean there will be no consequences for your decisions, including forms of penalization.  In the case of truckers, the government has done more than enough to promote voluntary vaccination.  Since the federal government imposed an immunization requirement last fall on workers in the air, rail and marine transportation sectors, it deliberately gave truckers more time to get vaccinated.  In consultation with the trucking and retail industries, the government waited for a “critical mass” of truckers to get their shots before making it mandatory.  In taking this approach and given the proven effectiveness of vaccine mandates, there is little doubt that the courts would find that such policies legally pass the taste test.

There is no doubt that Canadians and Americans owe much to these essential workers, but truckers need to vaccinate for their own health reasons and those of their families and friends, just like the rest of us.  While independent truckers in particular tend to reflect a ‘wild west’ mentality, they still have a responsibility to themselves and their communities to continue contributing to beating COVID-19 so that life can get back to normal and the economy can open.  They need to cut down on extreme pronouncements about attacking ‘tyrannical governments’ who supposedly are oppressing their people with public health measures.  Instead, they might gain more public support by avoiding such far-right fringe edicts.

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Jan 10

Arguments Against Working for Jerks Are Nothing New

by bcurry

Recently, Emma Goldberg wrote an article in the New York Times entitled: “No More Working for Jerks.”  The problem is that the issue of managers who are jerks is really nothing new.  What the pandemic and technology have increasingly exposed is that jerks are more frequently being caught out in the open.  The exposure is often because people are working from home and management has come to rely on e-mails, zoom and other social media to communicate with employees.  Over several years now I have been researching what makes good managers, only to find unfortunately that there are clearly a number who fit the mould of being crazy bosses, bad bosses, jerks or just plain assholes.  Whichever descriptive terms you prefer to use, their attributes include everything from bullying, harassment, insensitivity, incivility, sexism, racism, ageism, narcissism, etc., etc.

Several books have been written about managers displaying such attributes.  Stanley Bing wrote “Crazy Bosses” in 2007.   That same year, Robert I. Sutton wrote what has become a business classic: “The No Asshole Rule — Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.”  This book became a runaway bestseller, selling well over 800,000 copies and sparking translations into languages including Polish and Japanese.  In 2017, Sutton wrote a follow-up book entitled “Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal With People Who Treat You Like Dirt.”  The book offers ways of spotting and coping with the various kinds of jerks we encounter at work and pulls no punches.

Emma Goldberg notes in her article that, for some, the past year has rebalanced the power seesaw between worker and boss.  She suggests that it might partly be because of the surge of people quitting, noting a record high 4.5 million Americans who voluntarily left their jobs in November.  With about 1 out of 7 employees now working from home (compared to pre-pandemic 1 out of 67 persons), there is a lot of discussion about return to office plans of corporations and the preferences of workers vis-à-vis work-life balance.  Goldberg believes that, whatever the change, more workers are now feeling empowered to call out their managers than ever before, particularly those who are real jerks.

The fact of the matter is that studies have shown that companies that adopt a no-jerks or no asshole policy simply perform better.  In many cases, the problem starts with how workers are promoted and trained in management skills.  In today’s high-tech economy, persons with good technical skills may not necessarily have good soft-skills needed to manage knowledge workers.  Over the last couple of decades, companies have not invested as much time and resources in developing leadership and management skills.  Given the greater competition for gifted knowledge workers, having the right management skills and personal attributes is more important than ever.  When jerks are in charge, their actions quickly become known within the industry, often through social media exposure.  Subsequently, such corporate culture becomes a major obstacle to attracting new talent or retaining existing talent.

Increasingly, employees are informed during their orientation of the company’s “no asshole rule”, and it’s often even written into training material.  Failure to comply with the rule can lead to corporate punishment, including being fired.  Obviously, the same rule should apply to midlevel and senior managers.  Unfortunately, given the power and influence of senior executives, enforcing the rule and penalizing them for violations is not always easy.  Where Boards of Directors exist, it would certainly appear to be part of their responsibility to ensure accountability among senior management.  Over many years, there has been a lot written about actual examples of bad bosses and their impact on the workplace and workers.  Given the lack of management training and overview in both the private and public sectors, one can only conclude that jerks will continue to surface within organizations in the future.  The real question becomes whether these organizations will be able to retain and recruit scarce talent in this highly competitive era?

Labor Force Leadership

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Jan 8

Lower Unemployment Rate, However There Are Other Important Factors To Consider

by bcurry

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate declined to 3.9 percent in December 2021, compared to 4.2 percent in November.  According to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate in Canada fell to a new pandemic-low of 5.9 percent in December 2021 from 6 percent in November.  Of course, this has governments in both countries touting their apparent economic policy success.  However, there are a number of important factors to consider especially given the impact of COVID-19 on the labour force participation, notably in certain sectors of the economy.  When these dynamics are factored in, there is not a whole lot of good news to shout about.

The first is the decline in the participation rate, that is to say those who are actually looking for work.  For example, in the U.S., the labour force participation rate was unchanged at 61.9 percent in December but remains 1.5 percentage points lower than in February 2020, largely because of the pandemic’s impact.  Many workers are choosing to stay out of the labour market due to health and safety concerns and business closures, more so today with the more contagious Omicron variant.  With fewer people actually seeking employment, this automatically helps to lower the unemployment rate.

In both countries, the jobless rates particularly show a disparity among certain groupings.  For example, in the U.S., the jobless rates for teenagers (10.9 percent), Blacks (7.1 percent), Asians (3.8 percent), and Hispanics (4.9 percent) showed little or no change over the month of December.  In many cases, this is a reflection of the fact that certain minority groups and youth tend to work in low paying jobs in the leisure and hospitality sectors, many in small businesses that were closed or restricted due to lockdowns.  Employment in food services and drinking places has been particularly affected over the course of the pandemic.

In December, millions of persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer was closed or lost business due to the pandemic — that is: they did not work at all, were prevented from looking for work, or worked fewer hours at some point in the four weeks preceding the survey, often due to the pandemic.  To be counted as unemployed, by definition, individuals must be either actively looking for work or on temporary layoff.

Another factor has been the difficulty in finding full-time work for economic reasons and the pandemic.  Instead workers have been forced often to rely on part-time employment.  These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part-time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.  Some have had to rely on government assistance in order to survive over the last year and a half.  Unfortunately, some of these assistance programs have gradually been terminated in some jurisdictions, forcing many people to rely on food banks, friends and family for assistance.

What is most intriguing is the fact that despite a large number of jobs going unfilled, it appears that many employers are actually facing a labour shortage.  As their businesses reopen, this has forced employers to offer better wages and working conditions in order to attract previous or new workers.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.7 percent.  It will also be interesting to see how employers will deal with the more immediate problem of loosing workers due to the Omicron variant.  This of course is a major concern in the health care sector, but should hopefully be a temporary problem.  This situation shouldn’t have any major impact on the overall unemployment rate, but could influence labour participation rates should the affected workers permanently withdraw their services from the labour market (e.g. retirement).

All in all, one can see that the lower unemployment rates don’t necessarily reflect detrimental aspects of the current labour market situation, especially as they pertain to certain sectors and certain members of the labour force.

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