Sociology 1006E Working Poor in Canada Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Sociology 1006E Working Poor in Canada - Essay Example no particular poverty lines, which makes hinders the efforts to identify the appropriate interventions to reduce poverty among the most vulnerable groups (McQuillan & Ravanera, 66). Lee observes that poverty rose by 28.6% between 1990 and 1995 when there was a notable increase (6.1%) in the country’s total population (57). This increase was far more than economic growth in the country within that period. The metropolitan urban areas such as Montreal and Vancouver among others are inhabited by majority of the poor. Poverty among children and the youth, the aged and women is high which is indicator of the impact of poverty in the country due to the fact that children and the youth are the majority in the nation’s population. Majority of people with low levels of education such as below secondary are poor, even though there are more than 8% of poor people in cities who have attained post secondary education. The level of skills is also a major determinant of the poverty prevalence in the country, with the people with low skills being vulnerable to poverty (Beaujot & Kerr, 78). The country is faced with extensive layoffs as well as a reduction in permanent employment, downsizing in companies and declining social assistance rates. These have contributed to the rising levels of poverty. Globalization has significantly contributed to these occurrences especially with the improvements in communication, transport network as well as liberalization of trade, which has led to increased competition for the Canadian industries. Investors shifted their investment to the third world countries that apart from the low competition provide cheap labor compared to the Canadian labor force. This led to the closure of most companies in the country, thereby reducing employment opportunities especially for the unskilled labor (Liu & Kerr, 116). Moreover, there is an increasing trend towards computerization of most operations in many organizations, which is another major factor that