Restructuring of Full-time Workers: A Case of Transitional Dislocation or Social Exclusion in Canada? Lessons from the 1990s

Abstract

The decade of the 1990s witnessed an unprecedented erosion of the postwar welfare state, with massive restructuring of the labour market away from full-time, sustaining employment. This article examines the experiences of restructured Canadian full-time workers who lost a job because of a company shutdown, relocation, or non-seasonal business slowdown. Using data from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics for the period 1993–2001, we present longitudinal data examining labour market outcomes at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months following the initial job loss. Outcome data allow us to examine the extent to which job displacement in the 1990s resulted in transitional dislocation followed by stable full-time employment, or whether new pathways to social exclusion and marginalization were created. Given that only half of workers who lost their full-time jobs during this period were in stable and full-time employment two years later, we find support for the latter. The article further identifies policy alternatives that could lessen the social costs of neo-liberal labour market restructuring in Canada and beyond.