Uncovering Underemployment

The future of Canada as an inclusive and prosperous nation is dependent on our ability to take action today to ensure that the next generation has the aspiration, opportunities, and skills to become the leaders of tomorrow.

In recent years, Canadian governments have worked to secure the competitiveness of Canada’s workforce as a means of supporting economic growth. These investments have resulted in positive outcomes, including cementing Canada’s status as one of the most educated populations in the world. While investing in the quality of post-secondary graduates and workers is important, ensuring their skills are effectively located and utilized by employers is imperative to secure shared prosperity in the future.

When workers are in jobs that do not adequately deploy the full breadth of their abilities, we are at risk of missing out on the talents, productivity, ideas, and innovation of the full workforce. In addition, workers faced with these challenges are increasingly at risk to continue to struggle to find their full place within the workforce. Broadly, these scenarios of employment misallocation fall under the concept of “underemployment”.

Leveraging the strong alignment between Toronto Pearson International Airport’s community investment program—the Propeller Project—and Deloitte’s Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, WorldClass, Toronto Pearson and Deloitte have jointly developed a thought leadership piece to initiate a collaborative discussion around the causes and impact of underemployment, as well as the potential interventions that can be deployed to address this issue.