http://www.vancouversun.com/records+biggest+increase+year+over+year+recipients/1324021/story.html
Summary
According to a Statistics Canada survey that came out on Tuesday, BC has the country’s greatest increase in recipients receiving Employment Insurance (EI) in December. All provinces rose in the amount of regular EI recipients during the month of December. With the highest increase, BC was at 33.2%, with Alberta at 30.3% and Ontario at 29.6%. The actual number of increase of Canadians receiving EI was 79,100 between December of 2007 and 2008, which is a 16.6% increase. Breaking it down to gender, the percentage of men receiving EI had an increase of 21.7% and for women it was an increase of 8.6%. Since the start of the economic crisis at the end of 2008, the numbers are steadily rising. In January, 35,000 jobs were lost, which puts British Columbia’s unemployment rate at 6.1%.
Connection
As learned in chapter 5, the three ways of analyzing a country's economy are: unemployment, inflation, and the level of business activity. Obviously this article relates to the 1st factor which is unemployment. Seeing how high the unemployment rate in Canada is, it just confirms how our country isn't doing too well. Even though it may not seem like it, but citizens that are unemployed actually have an affect on those who are employed. When workers lose their job, they also lose their ability to pay taxes. When a lot of jobless people aren't able to pay taxes, the burden is added onto those who are able to pay. With the added taxes that covers the people who can not pay, the working people also has to pay additional tax that will support those the unemployed until they find a job.
Reflection
After reading this article, I started thinking. There are so many factors that can lead to unemployment, yet we’re in the middle of an economic crisis. Could the rise in numbers on EI recipients totally be blamed on that factor? I understand that with the global turndown, of course our country would be affected. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in every economic sector have been lost mainly due to this problem. Especially at this time, I would definitely not like to be in the position of someone without a job. I've heard stories from my relatives. The companies that they work for are all thinking of or if they haven't already done so to cut back on employees. This news of possible lay-off has gotten all the employees worried and concerned. I am very fortunate to be working at a company where they have not initiated any desire to laying off workers.
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2 comments:
As your co-worker, I am also glad to be fortunate to be working at a same company where they have no desire to lay off workers. To answer your question in your reflection, I think that the rise in numbers on EI recipients is one of the many factors that have an impact on the unemployment rate but not necessary hold the whole burden. It’s great that the unemployed people have the benefit of from receiving money when they are not working. If I was placed in the unemployed situation, I would also be attracted to these great benefits from the EI as well.
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