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Job Precarity in BC: Survey Results

Shared on behalf of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

The rise of “gig work” through apps like Uber and Skip the Dishes has sparked public debate about precarious work and what defines a “good job.” The BC government promised in 2020 to create a robust precarious work strategy, but a lack of data has hampered progress.

In a groundbreaking report we released today, we show that precarious work is much more common than people might think. Half the BC workforce lacks the job security, benefits and training that some of us take for granted. And the burden of precarious work falls more heavily on racialized and immigrant communities, Indigenous peoples, women and lower-income groups. These findings come from the first-of-its-kind pilot BC Precarity Survey we conducted with SFU’s Morgan Centre for Labour Research in late 2019. At that time, just prior to the pandemic, the labour market was strong—the situation is likely worse today. Read more about the highlights of the report here.

Iglika Ivanova is a senior economist and public interest researcher at the CCPA–BC Office.

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