Since 1985, the direct job creation efforts of the federal government have been targeted on the long term unemployed, under the Job Development Program, in response to the increased incidence of long term unemployment since the recession. This research was initiated to provide early feedback on a program of individually subsidized jobs, as a demand-side employment initiative targeted on individuals who had been unemployed for approximately six months. The research was a descriptive analysis of the experience of 64 program participants, in an area of Vancouver with a high ethnic population where there is traditionally high unemployment. An experimental, uncontrolled, single group design was used to compare client characteristics as program input, as well as program intervention, agency administration and labour market conditions, to program outcomes. The variable that demonstrated the strongest association with outcome was the relative demand for labour in the local labour market in which the job had been subsidized. There was also evidence from the research that factors within the subsidized job setting may influence the successful re-adaptation of long term unemployed individuals into the work force. The opportunity for career advancement as well as supervision on-the-job that is supportive of the individual who is re-adapting to a work environment, was each positively-correlated with program outcome. While the results were inconclusive for some of the client characteristics measured in the study, others were clearly found to be poor predictors of program success. Targeted job creation strategies like the Individually Subsidized Job program, respond not only to cyclical unemployment but address issues of structural unemployment through the targeting of these employment initiatives on employment disadvantaged groups. Although only tentative judgements can be drawn from the research, it suggests that program administration which is sensitive to labour market conditions, as well as to conditions within the job site itself, may improve the outcome of public employment initiatives. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study examines Canada's aging trend, the factors influencing the elderly's withdrawal from the labour force, and the implications of the two trends for planners and policy makers. Canada's population is aging. The absolute and relative number of people 65 and over is projected to increase well into the twenty-first century. Over this same period of time the elderly, defined as those persons 65 and over, are expected to reduce their participation in the labour force. With a greater proportion of elderly in the population and fewer of them working the costs and burdens involved with supporting this segment of the population will increase. It is important, therefore, that planners and policy makers understand why the population is aging, why the elderly are withdrawing from the labour force, and what the possible economic and social implications of these trends are. Based on explanatory models of the elderly's labour force participation constructed mainly by researchers in the United States, a .multiple regression analysis is conducted which attempts to evaluate those variables included in an explanatory equation which accounts for the variance in the elderly's labour force participation rate in Canada. Cross-section analyses are conducted for three years—1961, 1971, and 1976—with data derived principally from Statistics Canada census sources and aggregated at the provincial level. In contrast to studies originating in the United States, the results obtained in this study found pension benefits were not the most significant factor in explaining the decline in the elderly’s labour force participation in Canada. Both the unemployment rate and the occupation chosen by an elderly labour force participant consistently proved to be more significant factors in accounting for the variance in the elderly's labour force participation rate in Canada. The economic and social implications of a society which is aging and one in which an increasing number of elderly are choosing not to work are discussed. The two areas in which future planners and policy makers will face the most pressing problems in terms of funding and program delivery are the public pension and health care services. There will be a number of other areas affected by the increased incidence of elderly retired persons in the population. It is important, therefore, that research be conducted today, at all levels, into the various impacts a large proportionate increase in non-working elderly will have on Canadian society in the future. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate