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FEBRUARY 16, 1983

 

 

   
  

REcCEwe
FINANCIAL |
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TORONTO (CUP)--After the
horrors of student
unemployment in the summer

of 1982, it would be
heartening to predict
improvements’ for this
summer.
Sigh.

That’s not what those in the
business of predicting are
saying.

“I predict that perhaps one
in four students will be
unemployed this summer,”’
said Richard Balnis,
researcher for the Canadian
Federation of
-Students-Ontario. ae

“It’s going to be very
difficult for students to get
jobs this summer and more
difficult than ever to get
course-related work,’’ said Pat
Werner, executive director of
the University and College
Placement Association.

‘Getting a summer job has
been a struggle for years,”’
said Werner. But this year will
be even worse than last year
because ‘“‘there was a
dramatic decrease in
on-campus recruiting last fall

 

(for jobs this summer)
compared with previous years.

The national unemployment
rate among returning students
peaked in July 1982 at 19.3 per
cent, well above the overall
unemployment rate of 11.8 per
cent. When more than one
million students hit the labour
market this summer, Balnis
expects even more than last
year’s 216,000 to be out of
work. »

He said this happens because
“the student unemployment
rate is directly related to the
national unemployment rate,”’
and he expects the national
rate to go even higher than it
did last summer.

Chase Econometrics, an
economic forecasting
company, predicts that the
national rate will peak at 13.6
to 13.8 per cent this summer.
Balnis said the increase in
student unemployment will be
proportionately higher.

More than ever before
students will have to compete
with the long-term

‘unemployed for summer jobs,

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Balnis said.

‘Traditionally, returning
students have obtained jobs
through family connections or
friends,’’ he said. ‘‘But
families and friends can do
little when companies are
hiring back laid-off workers
and those with much more
experience.

Balnis said student
unemployment is even worse
than Statistics Canada figures
suggest, because a student
who only finds work for one
day a week is not counted as
unemployed. ;

A CFS-O pamphlet, ‘Where
Haved the Summer Jobs
gone?’’ charges that the
Ontario and federal
governments have not done
enough to help students
threatened by unemployment.
‘Many existing federal and
provincial summer job
creation programs for
students are short-term or
part-time, minimum wage

positions inadequate to
finance a student’s
participation in higher
education.

Students must save $1,120 to
be considered for a bursary or
loan under the Ontario

Student Assistance Plan. A
student who worked 16 weeks
at Ontario’s $3.50 per hour
minimum wage would be
required to save $70 a week,
50 per cent of their earnings
before deductions.

 
        
     
       
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
    

 
 
 

  

 

 

WELL MR. DOUGLAS , YOUR CREDENTIALS
MOST |MPRESSIVE ,,.. B.COMM. CHouk
IN YouR cLAss PWS A BA.with A Doveie
MATOR wn ECONOMIES AND PouricAL SCIENCE,.,..

wNOW GET LOST wi. WE'RE Nor HIRING oa

OTTAWA (CUP)- After
months of talks, the federal
and provincial government
have come to an agreement on
changes to Canada’s student
aid system,

But the deal is somewhat of
an anticlimax, because the
major program student organ-
izations had lobied for was al-

ready dead in the water by the’

time education ministers met
with Secretary of State Serge

Joyal in Victoria Lan. 23.
: l i ‘ i i i \ ler O oe The federal government had
already decided, probably in

December, to abandon plans
to for the first time give
burs cies as well as loans to
st .ents. That scheme would
ave pumped up to an extra
$250 million into student aid,
on top of about $200 million in
existing federal loans.

The decision to scrap federal
bursaries came as a-bitter but
not surprising disappointment
to the Canadian Federation of
Students (CFS), according to
executive officer Diane
Flaherty. Said the bursary
program fell victim to general
cost-cutting.

Still, students weren’t left
completely bereft of good
news.

Flaherty said the federal
government will not announce
the Victoria agreement ujntil
the Throne Speech, probably
in March, but secretary of
state bureaucrats told CFS the
details.

They said Joyal agreed to
three major changes to
student aid if the provinces
guarantee that student aid
programs would be
maintained or increased. The
changes are:

vart-time students will be
eligible for student aid for the
first time;
the most needy students will
receive an extra $56 to $100
per week in loans;

-Graduates who because of
financial difficulty cannot
meet their repayment

ARE

STUDENTS Fg:

ME 4
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4 \oo

Gov t Changes
Aid System

ds TOP MARKS

 

schedule will have their loans
repaid by the federal govern-
ment.

‘“‘Apparantly, Joyal’s
conditions met with
resounding applause,’’ said
Flaherty.

so is this good news?

‘‘When you take into account
that we were planning to get a
new bursary program, it’s
terrible news,’’ Flaherty said.

,

But she added that the
extension of aid to part-time
students is great news,

“‘something we can certainly
claim victory for because we
have been lobbying for it for a
long time.”’

Flaherty was also pleased
that the federal government
will cover for graduates who
cannot repay their loans,
particularly those who are
unemployed. She said the
NDP has been pushing for this
since November, especially
MP Mark Rose (Mission Port
Moody), and. thought this
might be a response to the
party’s questions in the House
of Commons.

She was not so keen about
the larger loan limits. The
amount of new money under
that proposal would be only
$10 million, versus the $250
million hoped for under the
axed bursary scheme. She also
said raising the loan ceilings
does not make post-secondary
institutions more accessible,
because students are reluctant:
to go thousands of dollars into
debt with unemployment so
high.

The federal and provincial
education ministers have not
yet reached a deal on federal
transfers under Established
Programs Financing. The
federal government. will
probably make an announce-
ment on transfers by March,
said Flaherty. ‘‘It is generally
asssumed they will impose the ~
six and five per cent limits on
education transfers over the
next two years.’’s