W1FUBY FREE PUE&%, WEDNESDAY, MAY 23,1990, PAE 7 PAGE SEVEN A1NALYZING UNEMFPLOYMENT Nct What it Seems With seven par cent unemploymentnation-wide, the law Of suppl1 ad demand, would tend to incicate -that there wouldbe7lots ofpople te I the available jobs. Yet every week the Toronto papers publish-hundreds of pages of help wanted ads. There are now, as well, several stand-alone newspapers - e.g. Employment News, Job Claasieds, Emrployment Leader - which are dedicated exclusively te tthe job markcet. Their boxes have mushroomed at every GO station and dot the street corners of Southern Ontario. Go down any retail strip and count the shops with help wanted signs in the windows. When last were you in a restaurant that didn't have a sign posted souiewhere that cooks or waitresses or dishwashers were needed? Asic any small business person what bis nuost pressing needs are, and flnding good staff will almoot always rank in the top three. So what's with the seven per cent unemployment? Why can't employer. find the staff they want? The stock answer which has become endenuic amongst politicians and bureaucrats i. that moot of those seven per cent don't want te work. The argument about lazy, shiftless workers bas been repeated so often that most pao ple believe it. It i. reinforced, even anuong the unemployed themselves, by the fact that every one of us can cite at least a couple of cases of people pulhing pogey when they could have been; eut earning a living. But these turn out te be exceptions. The statistics paint a different picture, a picture of a workforce that i. badlY out of synch with the needs of employers. Unemployment and labour force statistics are net pulled out of the air. They are governed by careful definitions. People have te be available for woeh te be included in the "tunemployed" and they muet also be looking for work unless -the areon temporary layoff -or bave another job starting within four weeks. Contrary te popular belief uepomn statistics have nothing te do with unempîcyment insurance. fie lazy, shifles bum whocdoes't want tework maybe- uNepoed in our«eyes but not in the eyos of Stats Canda Né do the unemployed include sick, or i~ue workers, womexx -on pregnancy blave, the institutionalized, or the unm boybes. Onlythe who are able and willing to, work are conlded "unemployed. The 1shocking truth i. that the narrow definition -cf Staeca uderstates the situation. Statscan does not include what it refers te as "discouraged workers 1 - people who are no longer actively Ilooking for work because no work is available. They aise, exclude the "underemployed' - the approxi- mately ba]f million workers who take part-time jobs because they can't find the ful-time work they are looking for. 'he Forget Commission inte Unemploymnent Insurance estimated that "discouraged workers" and the "under- employed" accounted for roughbly another 2 - 3 par cent'on top of tire "officiai" unemployment figures. The Commission also pointed out. that wble in any week, a certain parcentage may be eut cf worlc, agproximately 2 1/2 times that number will experience unempbcyment for part of the year. Far from painting a picture cf lazinesa, the figures show a colossal waste of human potentiai - almoet a million and a balf able-bodied workers who cannot flnd employment. The coet te, our economy is enormous - tons -of billions of dollars a year. The human cost - thre individuel stories cf unnecessary suffering, broken marriages, hungzy children, and sbattered dreams - is inestimable. Contrary te another popular mytir, unemployment i. not ust a maritime problem. Althoughth percentae are a lot bgirer tiere, the total of ail unempoyed ilfou Atlantic provinces uis only haif thre number inh Canada'. tbree major metropolitan areas. Unemplo ont in the fishing industry bas oly a marginal effect on the national figures. Federal bureaucrate were musing aloud' last year that since unempîcyment basnt been below seven percent in over ton years, maybe we sirould consider that full employment. With an attitude like that itfs ne wonderwe have a crisis. Full employmnent occurs only when-everybody who wants a job ham a job. In countries which vigourously retrain displaoed woekers, unemploymenit figures include only those that are between jobs. Couintries sucir as Sweden have shown that unemplo nt figures as low 1a1balf Par cent are susta.inable.TJ'nemnpbcymleit in Japan is routinely in the 2-3 par cent range.' Canada, ini fact, bas one of the bighest unem yent rtsamo n dustriahized countnies. Bu n s of thous-da;Éf-obsare beging te b.etaken. Next Week: the Educationaj jyuwiaunr - ' - <J..*~88 <5 PATRIOTIC CHOIR IN.FRONT 0OBP RLN HODI8T CHURCH MAY 25p,1908 This choir assembled in frot of what is now the United Church to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday. Her potrai m between the flags at the centre of the picturo. Although ber I birthday wasMy 24, the picture was taken a day later because May 24 was a Sunday, 10 TEARS AGO from the Wednesday, May 21, 1980 edition of the " Mayor Jim Gartshoee visited Whitby, England to present our town's gift for restoring the 199 stops to the Whitby Abbey. " Durham Rteion Couneil has rejected an additional seat fur Whitby. " Sister Mildred Moyle bas retired, after serving 13 years as principal of Denis OYConnor High School. " Councillor Barry Evans says the downtown core is coming back to life. 25 YEARS AGO from the Thursday. May 20, 1965 edition of the WIE Y WEKLY NeW8- " The Ontario Humane Society wants to establish an animal shelter in Whitby. " Councillor Bob Attersley wants a studýr of city s"tus for Whitby, va the townIs population is over 14,400. " An Ukrainian group will fIlm a war movie on Whitby streets in June. " Town Council bas rejected a public school board proposai to issue $150,000 in clentures for improvements to illcrest Sehool. 125 TEARSAGO fr-om the Thursday, May 18, 1865 edition of the WH1TBMY CHLRONICL " Charles Clark, owner of the Whitby Browery, advertises, "good wholesome liquor and no adulterated stffi" " The Whitby Infantry Company wil host the first volunteer reunion at the Mechanica' Hall. Volunteer militia members are asked to appear in uniform. " A poem entitled "Mrs. Whitby to Mms Bowmanville" is published in The Chronicle. " Crope fur 1865 will b. grod despite the bad weather, says fie Chronicle. . Wf"ý JML P