Canada’s Labour Minister is optimistic after a three-day meeting with her G20 counterparts in Argentina.
Patty Hajdu says she spoke with education and employment ministers from Mexico, Japan, and the United Kingdom, noting it’s valuable to hear their approaches to the changing world of work.
“We have talked quite a bit about what future skills might look like,” Hajdu notes, “And how we [can] better align the need for increasingly technological skills with what education facilities and approaches are taking in various countries,”
Hajdu tells talks also included how to make sure everyone can succeed in the workplace, the challenges some groups face, and the opportunities provided by making sure certain groups are included.
“It’s very similar to the things we’ve been talking about in Canada–women, newcomers, often, people with disabilities, and for some countries, Indigenous people as well.”
Meanwhile the Labour Minister says she’s not concerned with the net loss of 51,600 jobs nationwide in August, because most were part-time while full-time jobs increased.
The breakdown of August’s employment numbers from Statistics Canada indicates the number of full-time jobs grew by just over 40,000 but was outweighed by the loss of around 92,000 part-time jobs.
“We see that the trend for full-time work is encouraging,” Hajdu points out. “Of course, we’re going to monitor the numbers very closely, but there will obviously be fluctuations from month to month and season to season,”(File Photo)