What would it take? A longitudinal study of the long term unemployed in Toronto

The unemployment rate is certainly a problem; but it becomes more worrying as the duration of unemployment increases, leading to long term unemployment (LTU). The Ontario government describes long-term unemployment as the proportion of unemployed people who have been actively looking for work for the last 27 weeks or more during the Labour Force Survey. Statistics Canada on the other hand defines LTU as the proportion of the labour force aged 15 or older who did not have a job any time during the current or previous 12 months and have been actively looking for work in the past 4 weeks. According to Toronto Employment and Social Services (TESS), those on assistance for three or more years are referred to as long term unemployed. This project will assess the feasibility of conducting a longitudinal study of job seekers in the City of Toronto. The goal is to discover, describe and document the “life-experiences” of people who have encountered workforce development programming, and those who should be able to benefit from employment services.