Nine years and 15 jobs — the endless cycle of the gig economy is eating at my confidence

Economy

Nine years and 15 jobs — the endless cycle of the gig economy is eating at my confidence

Published

1 year ago

November 5, 2022

Harry Miller

The sky is still golden pink when I catch the bus and then the train to downtown Calgary — a new job, a new beginning.

But at the second stop, a familiar sign catches my eye. It’s on the building where I worked my first job in an administrative position to get my foot in the door as a new immigrant to Canada.

It’s also a grim reminder. There have been so many new beginnings that sometimes I feel I’m going in circles.

This is my ninth year in Canada — my dream country — and my 15th job in a row. I feel I am still scrambling to put my best foot forward. With every contract that ends, my heart sinks, my confidence plunges, and my anxiety grows. I wasn’t prepared for how much of the labour market in Canada is based on this precarious work or the gig economy.

When I first moved to Canada from Nepal, I knew I would have to start with a basic entry-level job and work hard to get re-established. Back home, with a business degree, I was an officer in an international not-for-profit organization. After I landed in Calgary, I worked in a couple of retail shops because I saw it as a valuable learning experience and a way to get my start.

A woman sits on a seat in a Calgary train. — Merina Shrestha rides Calgary Transit to another job opportunity in Calgary. (Submitted by Merina Shrestha)

I took training in Canadian employment skills through a local non-profit and got an unpaid placement at a local IT company with the promise of job experience. But at the end of my three-month contract, the firm simply said I did an excellent job and gave me a nice farewell. My manager said there was no permanent role for me and that she was sorry to let me go.

I was disappointed. A colleague told me they were under a hiring freeze, but was that just an excuse? In my heart, I felt I must have done a good job, but not good enough to be hired.

Still working part-time in retail, I knocked on several doors and landed a new assignment as an accounting assistant with a large oil and gas company. My excitement knew no bounds. My job was to help them transition to a new accounting system, a role I felt like I grasped quickly.

But after six or seven months, work started to recede. As the oil and gas industry went through a downturn, I was again let go with the promise that if they had work in the future, the company would contact me.

I must have done a good job, but not good enough to be hired.– Merina Shrestha

Another great job, another reference — but I was again starting all over. The setbacks and frustrations never end.

Sometimes I worry that I can’t find a permanent job because I’m an immigrant. At multiple interviews, I’m questioned about my ability to speak English. All through school and work in Nepal, English has been the means of communication. I took for granted that I communicate well. Suddenly, I’m doubting my ability to speak the language.

It has an impact on my family and my confidence.

For the first six years we were in Canada, my family lived in the basement of an old house in northwest Calgary. I felt helpless, watching my kids staring at the ceiling, with no fresh air and little sunlight, until finally the stability my husband found in his career allowed us to qualify for a mortgage.

A recognition card crediting the author for helping the company with payroll coverage. — Words of praise come often, but it never seems to be enough to land that coveted permanent position, writes Merina Shrestha. The signatures and company name have been blurred on this recognition card for privacy. (Merina Shrestha)

Thanks to my reputation and the kind words of my supervisors, I’ve never spent more than a month off work.

But sometimes I get exasperated. I came here in my mid-30s, and I’m still struggling into my 40s. I feel like I am on an endless cycle of quality control in a warehouse.

I know I’m not alone experiencing this. Almost two million Canadians worked in the gig economy in 2019, taking short-term contracts or doing shift work for platforms like Uber, according to Statistics Canada. Immigrants make up a large share of these workers.

And beyond the gig economy, even more Canadians have “precarious” work — temporary, part-time or seasonal jobs, often making minimum wage.

Each time a job ends, I try to remind myself that I am continuing to grow and learning to fit in here, so all is not lost. But at the same time, I ask myself, how long can I cope with this uncertainty? Do I have the resilience and patience to keep going through these circles?

I wonder if doing more homework or accessing more training before immigration would have helped me integrate better, and if Canada and the organizations using this temporary labour are providing enough support and security. Are we expendable individuals to let go on a whim?

For now, I am taking it one day at a time. If I am working on a particular day, if my family is settled, and if our basic needs are being met, that is a good day.

Telling your story

As part of our ongoing partnership with the Calgary Public Library, CBC Calgary is running in-person writing workshops to support community members telling their own stories. Read more from this workshop, run out of the Quarry Park Library.

Source link

Economy

China Wants Everyone to Trade In Their Old Cars, Fridges to Help Save Its Economy – Bloomberg

Published

2 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Harry Miller

China’s world-beating electric vehicle industry, at the heart of growing trade tensions with the US and Europe, is set to receive a big boost from the government’s latest effort to accelerate growth.

That’s one takeaway from what Beijing has revealed about its plan for incentives that will encourage Chinese businesses and households to adopt cleaner technologies. It’s widely expected to be one of this year’s main stimulus programs, though question-marks remain — including how much the government will spend.

Adblock test (Why?)

Source link

Economy

German Business Outlook Hits One-Year High as Economy Heals – BNN Bloomberg

Published

3 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Harry Miller

(Bloomberg) — German business sentiment improved to its highest level in a year — reinforcing recent signs that Europe’s largest economy is exiting two years of struggles.

An expectations gauge by the Ifo institute rose to 89.9. in April from a revised 87.7 the previous month. That exceeds the 88.9 median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. A measure of current conditions also advanced.

“Sentiment has improved at companies in Germany,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest said. “Companies were more satisfied with their current business. Their expectations also brightened. The economy is stabilizing, especially thanks to service providers.”

A stronger global economy and the prospect of looser monetary policy in the euro zone are helping drag Germany out of the malaise that set in following Russia’s attack on Ukraine. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said last week that the country may have “turned the corner,” while Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also expressed optimism, citing record employment and retreating inflation.

There’s been a particular shift in the data in recent weeks, with the Bundesbank now estimating that output rose in the first quarter, having only a month ago foreseen a contraction that would have ushered in a first recession since the pandemic.

Even so, the start of the year “didn’t go great,” according to Fuest.

“What we’re seeing at the moment confirms the forecasts, which are saying that growth will be weak in Germany, but at least it won’t be negative,” he told Bloomberg Television. “So this is the stabilization we expected. It’s not a complete recovery. But at least it’s a start.”

Monthly purchasing managers’ surveys for April brought more cheer this week as Germany returned to expansion for the first time since June 2023. Weak spots remain, however — notably in industry, which is still mired in a slump that’s being offset by a surge in services activity.

“We see an improving worldwide economy,” Fuest said. “But this doesn’t seem to reach German manufacturing, which is puzzling in a way.”

Germany, which was the only Group of Seven economy to shrink last year and has been weighing on the wider region, helped private-sector output in the 20-nation euro area strengthen this month, S&P Global said.

–With assistance from Joel Rinneby, Kristian Siedenburg and Francine Lacqua.

(Updates with more comments from Fuest starting in sixth paragraph.)

Adblock test (Why?)

Source link

Economy

Parallel economy: How Russia is defying the West’s boycott

Published

9 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Harry Miller

When Moscow resident Zoya, 62, was planning a trip to Italy to visit her daughter last August, she saw the perfect opportunity to buy the Apple Watch she had long dreamed of owning.

Officially, Apple does not sell its products in Russia.

The California-based tech giant was one of the first companies to announce it would exit the country in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

But the week before her trip, Zoya made a surprise discovery while browsing Yandex.Market, one of several Russian answers to Amazon, where she regularly shops.

Not only was the Apple Watch available for sale on the website, it was cheaper than in Italy.

Zoya bought the watch without a moment’s delay.

The serial code on the watch that was delivered to her home confirmed that it was manufactured by Apple in 2022 and intended for sale in the United States.

“In the store, they explained to me that these are genuine Apple products entering Russia through parallel imports,” Zoya, who asked to be only referred to by her first name, told Al Jazeera.

“I thought it was much easier to buy online than searching for a store in an unfamiliar country.”

Nearly 1,400 companies, including many of the most internationally recognisable brands, have since February 2022 announced that they would cease or dial back their operations in Russia in protest of Moscow’s military aggression against Ukraine.

But two years after the invasion, many of these companies’ products are still widely sold in Russia, in many cases in violation of Western-led sanctions, a months-long investigation by Al Jazeera has found.

Aided by the Russian government’s legalisation of parallel imports, Russian businesses have established a network of alternative supply chains to import restricted goods through third countries.

The companies that make the products have been either unwilling or unable to clamp down on these unofficial distribution networks.

Source link