Which Canadian workers are feeling most secure about their jobs?

Less than one in 10 (7.7%) employees agree or strongly agree that they might lose their job in the near future, reports Statistics Canada (StatCan).

While the number may be low, some workers are far more likely to feel job insecurity compared with others, according to the report.

Specifically, employees holding temporary jobs (22.8%) and part-time employees (10.9%) are more likely to agree they might lose their job.

Meanwhile, permanent employees report the lowest rates of perceived insecurity at 5.8%.
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Employees in information, culture and recreation (11.4%), and business, building and other support services (11.7%), are most likely to believe they might lose their job.

By contrast, those in finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (5.0%), and health care and social assistance (5.2%), report the lowest levels of insecurity.

Demographic differences are also evident. StatCan reports that West Asian (13.8%) and Arab (12.8%) employees are nearly twice as likely as non-racialised, non-Indigenous employees (6.9%) to feel insecure about their job. Recent immigrants—those who arrived in Canada less than five years ago—are also more likely to feel at risk (11.2%) compared to Canadian-born workers (6.7%).

Age is another factor, with younger employees aged 15 to 24 reporting higher job insecurity (9.6%) than those aged 25 to 54 (7.3%). Among older workers aged 55 to 69, 7.7% say they might lose their job in the coming months.

Vincent Hardy, analyst at StatCan, notes that broader economic conditions, including recent uncertainty in the Canadian economy and disruptions in the Canada-U.S. trade relationship, have contributed to these perceptions. He also observed that a growing proportion of employees neither agreed nor disagreed about their job security, suggesting increased uncertainty about the direction of the labour market.

For most Canadians, job security is a top priority, even above pay, according to a previous report from Robert Walters.

How to ensure greater job security

“Losing a job or becoming unemployed can often lead to a drop in income and lower psychological well-being,” says Hardy. “For workers who still have a job, the perception that job loss is likely to occur in the near future has also been found to negatively impact well-being.”

Here are some ways employers can help ensure job security among workers in tough times, as experts say in a Forbes report:

1. Involve staff in decision making.
2. Use a “hire tough, manage easy” approach to recruiting; cross-train employees and build interdepartmental collaboration into all jobs and projects.
3. Invest in talent management strategies.
4. Examine budgets for inefficiencies.
5. Explore new avenues and models of employment as terms of engagement have changed in today’s world.
6. Conduct exercises to establish what team normalities look like.
7. Assess the transferrable skills of staff in areas that are or will be underused in the changing environment and redeploy where possible to areas needing support.

Workers globally have grown more confident over the past year, yet far fewer report being satisfied with their jobs, according to the ManpowerGroup.