Employers missing out on this pool of potential labour eager to work

Article content

Businesses looking to fill record job vacancies amid a wave of retirements and a skilled-worker shortage have been forced to seek out new sources of labour. Though immigrants are often touted as one solution, there’s another potential pool of unemployed workers out there: mothers of young children who want to re-enter the workforce.

Article content

Of course, getting them back to work is easier said than done. Mothers face greater barriers when trying to get back to work than fathers, and the younger the children, the bigger the challenge, says a recent C.D. Howe Institute study: Uneven Odds: Men, Women and the Obstacles to Getting Back to Work with Kids.

Article content

Authors Tammy Schirle, Ana Ferrer and Annie (Yazhuo) Pan analyzed Statistics Canada labour force survey data of married parents of children aged 18 and younger and discovered, perhaps unsurprisingly, that mothers with children under the age of one had the lowest probability of going back to work. As children age, women are more likely to be working again, and by the time a child is aged seven or older, mothers are six percentage points more likely to be employed than women with two-year-olds.

Article content

The same can’t be said for fathers, however. The age of their children has no bearing on when they re-entered the labour force, highlighting the gap that exists between men and women when it comes to managing children and finding work.

It’s unlikely this study will surprise mothers. Women have historically borne the brunt of child care and home duties, something made even more obvious during the pandemic. As lockdowns hit in 2020, women dropped out of the workforce in droves after layoffs hit their families. Some also exited to provide care for kids stuck at home amid school and daycare closures.

Women lost 63 per cent of all jobs after the economy shut down in March 2020, resulting in a “she-cession,” says economist Armine Yalnizyann in a piece published by the Financial Post in October 2020. But when lockdowns eased, schools reopened and jobs returned, women remained out of luck compared to men. In September 2020, there were still 350,000 missing jobs. Of those, 85 per cent were once held by women, she says.

Article content

“There will be no recovery without a she-covery, and no she-covery without child care,” Yalnizyann said at the time.

The labour force participation rate among women has since bounced back to just above pre-pandemic levels, and in August 2022 came in at 84.4 per cent, 0.8 percentage points higher than in February 2020, Statistics Canada data shows.

However, affordable child care remains a critical factor holding women back from participating in the labour market, according to C.D. Howe. It’s also a key reason why the federal government introduced its $10-a-day child-care program in 2021. “COVID-19 has brutally exposed something women have long known: Without child care, parents — usually mothers — can’t work,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said when the plan was announced.

Article content

But if Canada is to succeed in getting mothers back to work, there are other areas that need addressing beyond child care, C.D. Howe says. Fair pay is one. In 2021, women made an average of 89 cents for every dollar brought in by men, Statistics Canada data shows. Closing that gap will bring more women into the labour market, C.D. Howe says. In addition, it recommends government offer mothers payouts to recoup costs associated with searching for a job — such as transportation and, yes, child care — and invest more money into programs that provide training to women.

Canada’s population is aging, and the wave of retirements isn’t likely to dissipate any time soon, so the existing labour shortages will be with us for longer. But there’s a whole pool of people who want to get back to work if only they had support. Getting more mothers into the workforce should be something employers and governments can both agree on.

• Email: vwells@postmedia.com | Twitter: vwells80

This story was first published in the FP Work newsletter, a curated look at the changing world of work.