Almost half a million Canadian women who lost their jobs during the pandemic hadn’t returned to work as of January. More than 200,000 had slipped into the ranks of the long-term unemployed, a threefold increase over last year.<\/p>\n
Before the crisis, these women held a wide variety of jobs, but there was a common thread. Many worked, for modest pay, in the low-skilled service jobs that helped keep the broader Canadian economy humming along. They may have lacked the economic clout of some other Canadian workers, but they were highly visible, in food courts, salons, pubs and elsewhere\u2014places that didn’t allow for safe physical distancing when the pandemic hit. Because women represented the majority in industries most affected by virus-containment measures, they bore the brunt of the job losses. <\/p>\n
Widespread vaccinations will bring back many service jobs. But firms have repositioned themselves to require fewer workers. And the year-long pandemic may have cemented new consumer habits around online shopping, at-home workouts and other digitally enabled activities. <\/p>\n
In this way, the pandemic accelerated structural economic changes that were in motion pre-COVID. Canadian women were already at higher risk of disruption<\/a> because they held more than half of the 35% of Canadian jobs susceptible to automation. The COVID crisis made them even more vulnerable, by forcing many firms to adopt contactless and other digital technologies far sooner than they might have otherwise. <\/p>\n Post-COVID, the work future for these Canadian women looks uncertain. This poses a challenge for Canadian policymakers and business leaders\u2014to retrain the most affected workers for new ways of working in rapidly changing industries, or to help them transition to new sectors. Enabling this process won’t only benefit the displaced workers; ultimately, Canada’s overall economic health depends on the broadest possible recovery.<\/p>\n Employment among women in Canada who earned less than $800 a week has fallen almost 30%. For men in the same wage brackets, the drop is 24%.<\/p>\nLong-term joblessness carries greater risk of skills erosion<\/h4>\n
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