In recent years, Canadian workers have faced tremendous change in the kinds of jobs that are available. The biggest trends include:

• a dramatic increase in jobs with non-standard, non-traditional work arrangements,
• the polarization in the distribution of occupations, with growth of both good jobs and bad jobs and declines in middle class jobs,
• evolving workplaces with on-going risks due to restructuring and downsizing,
• trends towards multitasking and multiskilling in the workplace.

Increases in Non-Standard Work Arrangements

Although a majority of working Canadians remain employed in traditional "full-time/full-year" jobs, a growing proportion - estimated at one-third or greater - can be found in one or more non-standard work arrangements.

These include:

• part-time or casual status jobs,
• temporary or contract work,
• self-employment,
• holding multiple jobs,
• working from home

In many cases these arrangements are voluntarily accepted and reflect workers' preferences. However, a growing segment of Canadian workers are entering into these arrangements involuntarily, because there are no better employment opportunities available. They are accepting part-time jobs because full-time work is unavailable and contract work in the absence of permanent employment options. Individuals are also working at multiple jobs to make ends meet. This has both short-term and long-term consequences for Canadian workers.

Part-time work:

Part-time or casual status work entails much more than simply the number of hours worked per week. It can indicate other key employment dimensions such as the degree of commitment and involvement in an organization, and the level of responsibility in the workplace.

A worker's employment status - whether full- or part-time - can affect a range of job benefits. These include:

• wages or salary
• access to fringe benefits (such as pension plans, health, dental and other insurance programs)
• responsibility and recognition within the workplace (including access to internal labour markets and promotional opportunities)
• general job security
• job flexibility in terms of work schedules and task assignments

Part-time workers are often disadvantaged on these and other employment dimensions. Typically, compensation packages are limited, promotional opportunities are absent, and part-time workers can find themselves marginalized in the workplace, lacking power, authority and chances to participate in decision-making processes.

Contract work:

Temporary or contract work is a growing trend in Canada. Newly-created jobs in the labour force are increasingly polarized between short- and long-term jobs. There has been significant growth in the proportion of new jobs lasting just one year or less. Self-employment is also increasing due to downsizing and diminished career opportunities in traditional paid employment settings. Growing numbers of Canadians are creating their own innovative work opportunities and employment solutions. The growing trend in working from home may certainly enhance schedule flexibility for workers, especially those seeking to balance work demands with domestic or other responsibilities. However it can also be limiting since workers may feel "on call" to work extended hours and respond to employers demands at irregular and inconvenient times.

Fewer benefits

One or more of these non-standard work arrangements may result in people holding two or more jobs, as Canadian workers attempt to make up the equivalent of traditional "full-time/full-year" employment. However, this will not ensure "full-time/full-year" equivalency. In these circumstances, Canadian workers are often denied or have limited access to critical employment benefits such as organized pension plans with employer/employee contributions. This, in turn, may lead to an increase in the age of retirement for such workers, with early retirement less likely to be an option. It may also lead to a decrease in the standard of living and quality of life during retirement years, particularly for those workers who find themselves relying solely on the limited benefits provided by public programs such as the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Supplement.

Changes in Workplaces

The rise in non-standard work arrangements also reflects fundamental shifts in the structure and labour composition of Canadian workplaces. Increasingly, private sector corporations are dealing with the negative effects of a global economy by downsizing. That includes large-scale layoffs especially during periods of economic recession or downturn. Government at all levels is downsizing to control expenditures and reduce deficits and longer-term public debt. In particular, middle managerial as well as white and blue collar supervisory positions throughout the labour force have been targeted as expendable. These have typically been regarded as good "middle class" jobs. The job functions are often rolled into other positions in the work organization. This does not necessarily lead to an enhanced status for the remaining positions in the workplace, despite increases in tasks, responsibilities and workload in general.

Multitasking and Multiskilling

Multitasking and multiskilling labour practices are being introduced in modern work organizations in a wide variety of forms including job sharing and rotation practices designed around a "teamwork" concept in the workplace.

In manufacturing industries, multitasking/skilling may entail expanding the range of duties of front-line production workers to include a combination of supervisory responsibilities, inspection and quality control functions, and maintenance or repair tasks. In the health care industry, multitasking/skilling practices have included the introduction of patient service associates or comparable generic workers to replace more highly-skilled registered nurses and practical nurses with lower-skilled generic workers.

Such practices enhance flexibility in the workplace by making it easier to rapidly deploy labour to specific tasks as needed, while at the same time expanding the variety of work and providing potential job enrichment for workers. The introduction of multitasking/skilling practices is associated with the declining role of "specialists" in the workplace, and growing importance of "generalists" - workers with a broad range of generic work-related skills including critical communications, interpersonal and analytical skills.

As Canadian workplaces restructure and downsize, the thinning middle layers of managerial/supervisory positions have resulting in flattened, less hierarchical organizations with fewer levels of graded authority. That has seriously challenged traditional worker expectations of a clear linear career path of being upwardly mobile with increasing seniority. Shifts in work place demography have led to career blockages for many workers in traditional pyramidal work organizations, with diminished promotional opportunities and increasing ages of promotion. These workplace changes can promote serious employee frustrations and morale problems. That includes diminished motivation and loyalty on the part of the worker, criticism of and greater resistance to workplace change, personal depression, hostility and cynicism. That has led to mid-career job switches becoming more common. Increases in job turnover - both voluntary and involuntary - come with significant costs to the individual worker, including social, psychological and economic costs. Costs to the work organization include recruiting and training new workers, as well as the critical loss of valuable worker knowledge, skill and experience.

Occupational Shifts

The loss of middle class jobs (especially managerial and supervisory positions) across work organizations has been accompanied by growing polarization in the distribution of occupations in the Canadian labour force.

With the declining middle, there has been growth of good jobs especially in high skilled social and business services professional occupations. That includes:

• accountants,
• auditors and financial officers,
• computer programmers and systems analysts

Bad jobs have also grown, notably unskilled trade and consumer services occupations - typically part-time jobs such as:

• cashiers,
• cooks, food service counter attendants and food preparers,
• grocery clerks and shelf stockers,
• babysitters, nannies and parents' helpers,
• janitors, caretakers and building superintendents

With growth at opposite ends of the occupational spectrum there is strong evidence of a widening gap between the haves and have nots in the Canadian labour force. While good jobs are still available to those workers with the right mix of education, credentials and experience, there has been more dramatic growth in unskilled to semi-skilled jobs with few benefits. There has also been an expansion of low-skilled marginal jobs within service sector job ghettos with limited prospects for career advancement or personal enrichment.

This polarization in the Canadian occupational distribution also highlights the importance of post-secondary education in all forms and "credentialism" to both successful labour market entry and longer-term career progression. However, despite a notable trend towards lifelong learning (continuous education and training throughout a working career), there remains strong evidence of an education-jobs gap, whether defined through unemployment or underemployment measures. Some of the consequences of this gap can be seen in large amounts of long-term student debt and increasing default rates due to un/deremployment of graduates. In an effort to close the gap and find suitable employment, many Canadians have turned to volunteer work as a potential means of access or entry into regular employment within service sector organizations especially for younger workers or labour force entrants. This trend accounts for some of the increase in voluntary sector activity seen in Canada.