page 6, April 20, 1977 - North Shore News

Last week’s

grim unemployment figures, showing a total of nearly one million jobless, raise 2 rather fundamental question about modern society: will there ever again be enough jobs to go

round for all who want them?

Coupled with that,

another question: have

present-day jobless statistics any real meaning?

Forty years ago they were: very meaningful indeed. During the depression era unemplolyment figures re- ferred primarily to father, usually. the sole family breadwinner. Sometimes he was helped out by a

live-at-home unmarried son. |

Basically, however, .a man without work meant a whole family without an income.

The booming employment

conditions of World War Two changed all that. The new concept was that everyone -- regardless of sex, age, family or financial status -- who wanted a paid job was entitled to seek one. That’s still the yardstick by which current unemployment. fig- ures are compiled.

Statistics ‘for the 22-year period from 1954 to 1975 tell

their own story of what has —

happened.

‘During that period Cana- da’s total labor force increas- ed from about 5.5 million to around 10 million, in. per- centage terms roughly twice as fast as the increase in the population. As a result the

proportion of the population — oF the past 20 years. -In that

on the job market rose from 3S percent in 1954 to 44 percent in 1975.

FIVE JOBS INSTEAD OF FOUR

In other words -- and on the basis of a constant population figure -- five jobs were being sought in 1975 (with an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent) for every four jobs in 1954 (when the workless numbered only 4.6 percent).

Now it’s true that the 22 years in question were, with a few ups and downs along the way, a time of great expectations: the kind of material expectations that Prime Minister Trudeau has warned us to reduce, as an alternative to going down the drain.

They were years when almost everyone in Canada was consuming (and de- manding) more and more in terms of goods and services

from housing, cars and appliances to recreational

Environment Minister James Nielsen has declared the week of Mav 9-15, 1977 as ‘‘Pitch - In ‘77’’ in British Columbia, in cooperation with Outdoors Unlittered, a non-profit organization con- ducting similar campaigns in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“Pitch-In’77"" is a pro- gram aimed at increasing people's awareness of the role that they can play in solving some of our environ- mental problems. It calls for active participation’, said Nielsen, an honorary director of Outdoors Unlittered.

In letters sent to schools,

+ + oe & a» ee ad oes he oH

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restaurant meals

activities, and Hawaiian vacations. So you might argue that the 25

percent increase in the number of job-holders and job-seekers proportionate to

the population was simply a

-logical outcome of the 7 affluent society. “ TECHNOLOGY

The main reason why this

theory doesn’t hold water is-

the technological. revolution

time automation and com- puters have taken over

millions of man-hours. of

work that humans alone provided back in the 1950s.

As a result, it may well be.

true that the 1954 ratio of workers to population -- 35 per cent instead of today’s 44 percent -- is still more than enough, aided by today’s technology, to. keep even the most affluent society in the style to which it aspires.

If this is the case, work may eventually come into the same category as energy --

we may sooner or later have

to start thinking in terms of conserving. and _ rationing jobs in much the same way as conserving and_ rationing fossil fuels. For, bad as the present unemployment situa- tion seems, its potential for getting worse has hardly been tapped.

FIVE MILLION “ JOBLESS‘?

There are currently 14.5_

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municipalities, industries, youth groups and service clubs, the minister has requested that they consider organizing beautification projects and clean-up activi- ties and undertaking educa- tional campaigns.

Outdoors Unlittered is encouraging schools to de- vote a day or part of a day between May 9-15 to en- vironmental studies, action projects or conservation ac- tivities.

This is the ninth year that Outdoors Unlittered has sponsored a Pitch-In cam- paign. To promote action

a ove eo . ~ ~ 4

_ Environment

million Canadians between

the ages of 15 and 64. Theoretically, they all have a.

right to a paid job, if they can |

find one. That- means a

possible four million or so.

extra job-seekers perfectly entitled to join the present 10 million in the ‘‘labor force’’

should the fancy SO take

_ them.

If it happened next week,

. Canada’s

figure would promptly nudge the five million mark..

Naturally it won't happen that way. But the mere thought does. raise the question of how long a paid job is going to remain an automatic right for anybody and everybody who seeks one in the years ahead. Or how soon we may have to start regarding paid jobs as a privilege -- a limited resource to be allocated, like energy resources, in accordance with economic and social ‘needs.

I won’t even try to predict — ’

how this might come about. I doubt whether Solomon him- self would, were he still around. But there’s

doorstep right now of the urgent need for some new approach to the subject.

‘15-24 AGE GROUP

It’s the 14-15. percent. unemployment rate among young people in the 15-24 age group.

Maybe a few of them haven’t been taught the right ©

skills. or attitudes by their

parents’ generation. Maybe some of them are ~ only capable, initially of the simpler tasks, which .com- puters and other automated

gizmos can do much faster.

and. more econoniically. Maybe they are going to cost precious time in training before they bring an employ- er any financial return.

But they’re there. Burst- ing with strength, energy and fresh ideas, and rearing to be going. Most important, they’re the people who will

shape our society for the next

30 years or so. For good or bad.

If y we don’t quickly find a way -- at whatever cost -- to help more of them get a start in the labor force, we’re all headed for trouble.

projects the Ministry of the

total of 30,000 garbage bags available to community groups and schools through- out British Columbia.

. Conducted concurrently in i | ) :

Outdoors Unlittered is a a

the three western provinces, the campaign drew more

than 500,000 participants in.

1976.

non-profit organization founded in 1967 and support- ed by the Ministry of the Environment, local povern- ment, industry, school boards, schools, the media and the public,

wow ist

‘‘unemployment’’

one © glaring example on our

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