There are no bad jobs, says Flaherty

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

This is also false. To qualify for 45 weeks of EI benefits, the minimum amount of work you have to perform is 1330 hours (33.25 weeks assuming a 40 hour work week), and that's only if your region of residence has 16% unemployment or greater. If you live in an area where the unemployment rate is equal to the national average (currently 7.3%), the maximum benefit you can receive is 40 weeks, and that's only if you previously worked for 1820 hours (45.5 weeks).

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/e...ar.shtml#long1

Don't know why I didn't see that chart as it was specifically what I was looking for.

Those numbers make a lot more sense to me that the other stuff I was able to find on the same page, which was obviously very vague

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

This is also false. To qualify for 45 weeks of EI benefits, the minimum amount of work you have to perform is 1330 hours (33.25 weeks assuming a 40 hour work week), and that's only if your region of residence has 16% unemployment or greater. If you live in an area where the unemployment rate is equal to the national average (currently 7.3%), the maximum benefit you can receive is 40 weeks, and that's only if you previously worked for 1820 hours (45.5 weeks).

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/e...ar.shtml#long1

Eh I'm far from an expert on this, this page here says 420 hours which is closer to 10.5 weeks, going by your table we're looking at 26 weeks in a 13% unemployment area.

Which isn't as bad as 45 weeks obviously, but even working 2.5 months and then being able to collect EI for another 6.5 is pretty unbalanced.

[Doodlebug]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

....Maternity leave aside I'd like to see it capped at 6 months....

Why not cap Parental leave to the number of times you can collect it, say 2-3 times. The math suggests that by having 4 mat/pat leaves you will collect more from EI than ever having put in.

[Julio]

Things are much better than they used to be regarding 'seasonal jobs' and then collecting EI the rest of the year...I think some of that is because of people willing to move 'away' to get work (Newf. workers and For Mac is the biggest example). A few decades ago there were jobs that people pretty much 'shared' so that they could all get EI, places such as fish plants that were open just long enough to get the workers benefits etc.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

I'm pretty sure you have to stay in the area in which you're looking for a job to qualify for EI. You'd be committing fraud if you claimed EI while backpacking in South America.

You would be committing fraud, but that doesn't mean that you would get caught. As far as I know the government doesn't share information between departments very well so EI doesn't know that you have left the country. You just carry a cell phone as your contact number or check your messages at home if they follow up with you at all.

[Julio]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Don't know why I didn't see that chart as it was specifically what I was looking for.

Those numbers make a lot more sense to me that the other stuff I was able to find on the same page, which was obviously very vague

Here is a better chart that explains by region

http://srv129.services.gc.ca/rbin/eng/rates_cur.aspx Looks like the absolute least number of hours you have to work in order to get benefits is 420.

[Azure]

I never said that someone shouldn't get an Arts degree. I said that there is a better chance of securing a job straight out of post-secondary if you take a degree in a field that is hiring in the area you want to work.

Right now in Calgary the engineering degree or something to do with O&G will probably result in a job pretty quickly. In San Francisco, a computer science degree would do the same thing.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

a 4 year degree doesn't guarantee a job within that field.

That's especially true in certain programs.

Hence, get a real job. Or take a real program. But holding out for a dream job with your masters in comparitve literature is ridiculous.

I love this. Just curious, but what is your valuable degree in?

[Dion]

Flaherty should work the killing floor at Cargill. He would then come to understand what a bad job is.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Doodlebug

Out of curiosity, anyone know what percentage of EI payments are for maternity and parental leave?

I don't think those are factored in to any of the statistics, just like how children and retired people aren't factored into unemployment rates.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

Nobody owes you a job just because you got a 4 year degree.

Signed,
Social Science/Fine Arts Students Everywhere.

Nobody owes anybody a job, but it is far more useful to use whatever time you have on EI to actually dedicate to a full time search of a job in your chosen field.

I was on EI for a short time, and I feel that it was a far better use of my time to look for a job that would eventually advance my career and pay well then toil in some job where I wouldn't be as available for interviews or spend time trying to network with people in my field.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

It varies by region of the country, I guess there's areas of Canada where the maximum amount of time you can collect EI is 45 weeks... Yes just 7 weeks short of an entire year. This is where people get steamed about the seasonal workers who do 8-12 weeks (2-3 months) and collect IE the rest of the year.

But you have to realize that EI is a percentage (or at least it was) of whatever income they had before. Depending on their job, it would be pittance to what they could get actually having a job. I think during my time I was at the cap of about $1440 / month. This was very basic living if you single or married without kids.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Nobody owes anybody a job, but it is far more useful to use whatever time you have on EI to actually dedicate to a full time search of a job in your chosen field.

I was on EI for a short time, and I feel that it was a far better use of my time to look for a job that would eventually advance my career and pay well then toil in some job where I wouldn't be as available for interviews or spend time trying to network with people in my field.

Except nobody is saying that you shouldn't do that. The apparent abuse of the EI system has been mentioned a couple times in this thread, and things like that need to be stopped.

Either way, the comments made by Flaherty are being taken seriously out of context. Everyone here knows damn well that when you can't find a job in YOUR field, there is nothing wrong with a different job in a different field until something better comes up. Flaherty is encouraging that, because apparently there are people who are refusing to do certain jobs because they don't want to get their hands dirty. We have a labour shortage in certain provinces. Most of those jobs are high labour, low-skill jobs. The fact that they're not being filled, despite the fact that we're sitting at 7.3% unemployment shows that people are being extremely picky about where they work.

Like I said before, a job search on Monster.ca brings up thousands of jobs in a variety of different fields. Hard to have sympathy for someone who doesn't even attempt to find a different job when they can't find anything in 'their' field.

[OffsideSpecialist]

I know a guy that spends summers raking in the dough doing landscaping, and then collects EI through the winter. To boot, he works the maximum number of hours at a ski hill through the winter so that it won`t hurt his EI payouts.

[freedogger]

Originally Posted by Dion

Flaherty should work the killing floor at Cargill. He would then come to understand what a bad job is.

Or I could take him treeplanting. Piecework, paid by the tree, except he wouldn't break min wage and it would cost the rest of the crew to carry his sorry ass.

[jolinar of malkshor]

How is it that we have millions of foreigners wanting move have way across the globe, relocate their family or even leave their family to send money back home, yet we have some provinces with double digit unemployment because those people are unwilling to move a few thousand km's in the same country to try an make their life better?

It's because our society and social programs have made life to comfortable in Canada. Alberta and Sask have enough job vacancies to hire all the unemployed in Eastern Canada, but most of those people will not relocate here to make a better life.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

The article also mentions taking a job away from home. I wonder how much they will push that. Can you collect EI in New Brunswick if there is a job that you qualify for in B.C.?

What's rich about this is that two years ago, I got laid off in B.C. And took a lower paying job in Edmonton to get off EI which I collected for two weeks. The Harper government rejected my moving expenses, the next year when I did my taxes, sending me a bill. Eventually I produced letters from the ex employer who laid me off, my current employer, a cousin who put me up for 6 weeks, plus receipts for more than I claimed to justify why I claimed it, and they did in fact owe me money. Of course they would send me an adjusted bill every month running up the interest...when they agreed my claim was legitimate...no interest for me.

I imagine they're looking for reasons to keep their auditors busy with this claim. Move away for a better job, and be rest assured we're going to audit your arse after you do. They probably use these adjusted fake tax returns to lie about their revenue numbers in the budget so they can keep on claiming how awesome they are.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

How is it that we have millions of foreigners wanting move have way across the globe, relocate their family or even leave their family to send money back home, yet we have some provinces with double digit unemployment because those people are unwilling to move a few thousand km's in the same country to try an make their life better?

It's because our society and social programs have made life to comfortable in Canada. Alberta and Sask have enough job vacancies to hire all the unemployed in Eastern Canada, but most of those people will not relocate here to make a better life.

Wouldn't a stream of skilled labour cause a decrease in salaries? I am kind of happy that nobody wants to travel half-way across the country to work here, except that being in a "have" province means contributing more to other "have-not" provinces instead of investing in better medical / infrastructure projects.

I know that sucks from an employer's perspective when they have to pay higher salaries and benefits to recruit and retain employees, but not being an employer I don't even know if that is an issue - I would suspect that price of goods and services are just adjusted to compensate.

[GP_Matt]

The higher salaries are offset by the fact that the labour shortage means you are doing the work of two people.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Wouldn't a stream of skilled labour cause a decrease in salaries? I am kind of happy that nobody wants to travel half-way across the country to work here, except that being in a "have" province means contributing more to other "have-not" provinces instead of investing in better medical / infrastructure projects.

I know that sucks from an employer's perspective when they have to pay higher salaries and benefits to recruit and retain employees, but not being an employer I don't even know if that is an issue - I would suspect that price of goods and services are just adjusted to compensate.

Alberta is short on skilled workers. We will need 150,000 over the next 5-10 years. I doubt there will be any decrease in salaries.