Shaping Labour Market Trends

Demographics: Shaping Employment Opportunities

Employment opportunities in the provision of key commodities and services can be defined by the needs of certain demographic groups in Canada. One of the more outstanding differences occurs across generations. Another occurs across cultures.

Generational Divisions in the Population

Generational differences have a powerful impact on employment. The product and service demands of different generations determine who is available for work and the kind of work needed to be done. David Foot, a University of Toronto economist, specializes in the economic implications of generational differences. Some of Foot's ideas about the generations and their economic needs were discussed in a series of newspaper articles in the Vancouver Sun (1994). The textbox, The Demographic Ladder, gives a description of the major generational divisions in the population examined in the series.

The baby-boomer generation is the largest and their needs have created a very large market for goods and services. However, as the Foot articles explain, one group that has been overlooked will offer unprecedented opportunities for companies that offer particular goods and services over the next 30 years.

Foot calls the group born between 1928 and 1946 the blessed ones. They are a valuable niche market because they have money to spend. This cohort amassed great personal wealth in Canada. Marketing specialists refer to them as "woopies," or well-off older people. Woopies are sophisticated shoppers who are willing to spend, but with the emphasis on value, not conspicuous consumption. What are well-off older people likely to want and need?

• Retirement and estate planning.
• Condominiums/townhouses or renovations of existing homes to accommodate disabled or aging occupants. There is already a new specialty within interior design and architecture for "refitting" homes to make them user-friendly to elderly people.
• Convenience services. They eat out three times a week on average.
• Residential services including renovation, landscaping, maintenance and security of homes.
• Health care including optometry, pharmacy and chiropractic services.
• Travel and recreation. The mature market wants unique travel experiences that stress historical, educational or cultural elements.
• They purchase 43% of the new domestic cars and 48% of the luxury cars.
• Continuing education classes related to crafts and hobbies.

The Demographic Ladder* Golden oldies. Born before 1928, population: 3.6 million. Survived two world wars and a depression to make it to retirement. Today, some never had it so good, but some, such as elderly widows, scrimp to get by. The blessed ones. Born between 1928 and 1946, population: 4.3 million. Born lucky. A small cohort; no competition in the job market; couldn't help but make it. In the 1950s and 1960s real wages rose by over 30% and unemployment never went over 7%. Housing prices, mortgage rates and levels of indebtedness remained enviably low compared with today's levels. Baby-boomers. Born between 1947 and 1966, population 9.8 million. The defining demographic cohort of Canadian life, the baby boom is actually two phases: First phase, born between 1947 and 1957, population 5.6 million. The Woodstock generation. Made it to the job market before Generation X, but the competition resulting from their sheer numbers forced them to embrace the world of debt. Second phase, born between 1960 and 1966, population 4.2 million. Generation X. Demographically cursed. Spotty employment opportunities. Often found in basement apartments. Baby busters. Born between 1967 and 1979, population 5.3 million. The wake of the baby-boom crest. Like to paint themselves as disaffected. Face roomier job market as they grow older. Those McJobs will eventually turn into something meatier. Baby boom echo. Born between 1980 and 1995, population 6 million. Relatively high numbers will make competition for jobs stiff. *Adapted from Vancouver Sun series (1994). The numbers cited are from Statistics Canada's 1993 population survey.

The other generational groups will also provide businesses with opportunities to meet their needs and wants.

However, the chair of the Retail Merchants' Association of B.C. says aging baby-boomers are becoming far more cautious about spending money on almost all goods and services. They have more responsibilities now, and they are feeling less secure about their future. He warns that "consumption is never going to go back to the way it was in the mid-1980s" (Vancouver Sun, 1994).

We can predict, however, that the needs of baby-boomers will continue to have a strong influence on the demand for goods and services.

• Boomers are starting to pursue less strenuous leisure activities. For example, golf is increasingly popular while hockey, tennis, squash and downhill skiing are declining in popularity, which, according to David Foot, is why the only growth in skiing is in snowboarding (a younger person's sport). The real growth sport for the future: bird watching.
• Boomers already have homes, so they will spend on high-tech home entertainment and educational information technology for their kids.
• Demand for convenience items/services will increase. If you can save boomers time or money, the product or service is likely to succeed.
• Health and personal care items with the emphasis on prevention and holistic or alternative forms of medicine, will be popular.
• Financial planning services will be in demand.

For the baby-boom echo, opportunities in the children's market, including clothing, toys, music and books will continue. The needs of the golden oldies will continue to centre on home and health care.

Cultural Diversity

Another change to consider regarding product and service demands, and the employment opportunities they create, is the increase in Canada's population of visible minorities and immigrants. The growth of persons who speak a non-official language in the home rose by 49% between 1986 and 1996 (Summerfield, 1999). Such growth in ethnic diversity leads to a corresponding growth in demand for workers in related industries, such as language and immigrant services (although these services are vulnerable to cuts in government spending), and market products and services. Types of employment and demand for skills shift to accommodate the needs of these new Canadians. For example, journalists and production technicians who could write and design graphically in Chinese were required for Maclean`s test marketing of an all-Chinese edition of its news magazine for Canada's half-million Chinese people living at home or abroad.

Television specialty channels in many languages are experiencing an explosion. Mainstream marketers of everything from packaged goods to cars are targeting ethnic communities, and London Life is running campaigns in Mandarin and Cantonese (Summerfield, 1999). Specialty food stores are another area of growth. All of these provide employment opportunities for a culturally diverse population.

Implications for Career Decision Making

As the work force ages, practitioners will see more older clients with different issues and more new Canadians who have come to fill in some of the skills gaps in industry. This wider range of client backgrounds calls for enhanced practitioner skill sets that include:

• increased knowledge of cultural backgrounds for counselling diverse populations;
• new skills identification methods to accommodate out-of-country training recognition and recognition of on-the-job experience for workers retraining for new technological and management positions;
• increased knowledge of access points for information;
• new skills in assessing and choosing appropriate information; and
• knowledge of information technology (IT) skills and how they relate to client plans for career development.

Practitioners working with young people will need a broad awareness and acceptance of cultural patterns in the increasingly diverse work force. They may see widely varying parental influence on career decision making, or they may have to deal with many kinds of sex-role stereotyping in occupations. Some students/clients may believe that certain jobs are only for men or only for women, while others may not care and want to try out for any job.

Cultural variances will also affect the willingness of some clients/students to go out on a cold call for information, to enter a male employer's office for an information interview or to look the interviewer in the eye. In student or client placements, the practitioner can do a lot to educate an employer. Why do two women come to the interview together when only one is interested in a particular job? Why do certain applicants look down when answering a question? Why do some potential employees say yes when they really mean no? This may be the first step toward understanding for an employer who has had no experience with other cultures.

Many immigrants express a desire to be trained in any field that will allow them to make enough money to support their family rather than in a field that is better suited to their interests and natural abilities. Practitioners may have to accept an alternate definition of fulfilment for some clients, when they say: "At this time in my life, I am happy to be able to feed and support my family, whether I like the work or not."