Posted: Thursday, 16 June 2011

OTTAWA – The president of the Canadian Labour Congress says that information released today by Statistics Canada shows the devastating impact of the recession upon working families, and the importance of income support programs like Employment Insurance.

Ken Georgetti was responding to figures regarding the income of Canadian families and individuals for the year 2009. “The money people were able to make from the job market fell due to the rise of unemployment and the replacement of full-time jobs by by short-term jobs. The only thing that saved many workers and their families was an increase in government transfer payments, mainly from Employment Insurance,” Georgetti says.

The Statistics Canada data show that in 2009 the average market income of families fell from $63,500 to $61,900. This was offset by an increase in government transfers, from an average of $3,900 to an average of $5,100. Since taxes also fell slightly, the average after tax income of families was unchanged at $59,700.

Statistics Canada reports that half of the increase in government transfers came from EI, as the number of families receiving benefits rose by 20%. Georgetti says, "The data clearly underline the importance of Canada's EI program, even though we know that one half of all unemployed workers fell through the cracks and did not collect benefits, while many others ran out of benefits before finding a new job.”

The data show that despite the increase in EI and other income transfers, the poverty rate for all persons rose from 9.4% to 9.6% in 2009 compared to 2008, and the child poverty rate rose from 9.1% to 9.5%. "This increase in poverty is disturbing since the 2009 reading really takes us only to the mid point of the recession, which continued into 2010,” Georgetti says. “Even today, we are far from where we were before the recession in terms of the number of workers in steady full-time jobs."

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca

Contacts: Dennis Gruending, CLC Communications: 613-526-7431 or Mobile: 613-878-6040
Email: dgruending@clc-ctc.ca