Precarious employment is defined as work that is typically part-time, temporary, or contract, and often without longer-term job security and employment-based benefits. It is often called non-standard employment. To better understand employment precarity and its impact in Niagara, PEPiN (Poverty and Employment Precarity in Niagara), recently completed a research study and report, “Uncertain Jobs, Certain Impacts: Employment Precarity in Niagara”. PEPiN is an initiative lead by United Way Niagara and Brock University, made possible with funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. In an effort to replicate similar studies conducted in other Ontario cities by the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) research group, the PEPiN study analyzed survey results from a random sampling of 713 employed Niagara residents in the summer of 2017. PEPiN contracted Leger, the same survey research group which conducted the other PEPSO studies, to survey participants on their experience with precarious work, mental health, general health, and overall quality of life. After evaluating answers to survey questions completed by phone interviews, results indicated that precarious employment has a significant impact on the individuals, families and communities it touches, and that these impacts are indeed widespread and pervasive in Niagara. In fact, statistics gathered to inform the PEPiN study show that: Only forty-eight percent of all workers in the 12 local-area municipalities of Niagara region have stable, secure full-time jobs resulting from what is called a standard employment relation (SER). All other employees are working in situations with some measure of precariousness. This includes jobs without … Continue reading Understanding Employment Precarity and Its Impact in Niagara