Canadian and irish Researchers Find that Older, Rural Workers Satisfied with Non-standard Work

Researchers studying urban and rural workers in Newfoundland, Ontario and Ireland report that the non-standard work often called a "dead-end job" has little impact on the happiness of older rural workers. Of all older (40 plus) rural workers, a majority were found to hold jobs other than year-round, full-time positions--including long- and short-distance commuters, part-time, seasonal, self-employed, early retirees--and generally these workers report being satisfied with their work-life balance, and even those supposedly holding "jobs of moderate or lower quality tend to make the best of their jobs and focus more on their non-working lives."

The researchers were led by Gordon Cooke, an associate professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and they presented in two papers at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, one by Sara Man of the University of Guelph and one co-presented with Deidre Hutchings, MBA student at Memorial University of Newfoundland. According to an article in the Vancouver Sun:

Using a massive Statistics Canada employment survey database including 25,000 employees in 6,000 workplaces, they found that just 6.8 per cent of 40-plus workers hold unskilled jobs with low pay and benefits. Seventeen per cent work in jobs with non-standard hours, but they have high levels of job satisfaction, ranking themselves an average of 3.3 out of 4.

Sources: CNW Group Press Release (June 3, 2011); Vancouver Sun "Older, rural workers OK with non-standard jobs, research shows" (June 5, 2011)

Virginia: Study Finds Rural Communities Short of Younger Workers

According to 2006 population estimates by age and gender developed by the Demographics and Workforce section of the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, younger Virginians (18-24) are concentrated in or near college or university towns and, after college graduation, in localities--typically cities--with the largest range of employment opportunities. Accordingly, workforce development strategies targeted to available human resources will be required to meet the needs of employers in rural areas.

Qian Cai, director of the Demographics and Workforce Section, who prepared the estimates, notes that "[w]hile small and rural communities may offer certain dimensions of a high quality of life, the absence of employment opportunities presents significant disadvantages to these communities in attracting younger workers.” At the other end of the workforce, the percentage of Virginians at pre-retirement age (55-64) continues to grow--now 11% of the current population, compared to less than 9% six years ago.

“Communities facing the largest retirement challenge already tend to have a higher proportion of elderly citizens,” says Cai, “because the younger population leaves in search of work, the older resident population ages in place, and many who left when young tend to move back for retirement.” In Mathews County, for example, 11 out of every 100 people aged 65-69 moved in from elsewhere (as compared to the state average of three out of 100).

Source: University of Virginia News Release (March 14, 2007)