‘Perfect Storm’ of crises take shape


on April 27, 2022
By Newsroom



Against the backdrop of shifting population demographics, conflicts, post-pandemic shocks and climate change, the developing world is on the brink of a “perfect storm” of debt, food and energy crises, experts warned the Commission on Population and Development on Monday.

While sounding the alarm over the planet’s unequal COVID-19 recovery and notable reductions in public spending for youth, older people and other vulnerable populations, officials from across the UN system stressed that this multipronged crisis has a “decidedly female face.”

Opening its fifty-fifth session under the theme “Population and sustainable development, in particular sustained and inclusive economic growth,” marks success for a body that has historically been plagued by gridlock and disagreement.

Population, poverty, economic growth

Commission Chair Enrique A. Manalo said that efforts to slow population growth, decrease poverty, realize economic progress, protect the environment and reduce unsustainable consumption and production are all mutually reinforcing.

With poverty and inequality gaining renewed attention amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the insights outlined in the Programme of Action agreed upon at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt are as relevant today as ever.

Although the world’s challenges are not caused by population growth, they are compounded by it, making it more difficult to tackle, he said.

Rising inequality

Rebecca Grynspan, head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), warned that a systemic debt crisis is unfolding for billions in the developing world – with inflation at a multi-decade high and civil unrest brewing in all corners of the world.

Meanwhile, progress towards realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been severely hampered as inequalities are rising.

She drew attention to the world’s large generation of young people, as well as women, voicing hope that their innovative ideas will help reverse these negative trends.

‘Gathering storm of adversity’

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed agreed that the pandemic lent a fresh urgency to the challenges being discussed by the Commission. COVID-19 kept boys and girls out of school, increased the burden of care work — especially for women — and exacerbated gender-based violence.

At the same time, the world remains far off track on the goal of eliminating hunger and malnutrition by 2030, and the numbers of people affected by hunger are projected to increase by tens of millions as the war in Ukraine causes food and energy prices to skyrocket.

“In the face of this gathering storm of adversity, we must come together as an international community,” she said, adding, “we urgently need to renew the social contract to rebuild trust and social cohesion.”

High stakes for women, girls

Meanwhile, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) chief Natalia Kanem said that COVID-19 has made painfully clear the need for massive investments in family planning services and national health systems that are universal, resilient, data-driven and adequately staffed.

“Lack of bodily autonomy and reproductive choices continue to block women’s path to equality and full participation in economic life,” she said, expressing concern over declining funding for population-related matters – especially sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights – as countries shift their priorities amid the pandemic.

“We cannot afford further reversals – the stakes for women, girls and young people, and for their societies, are far too high.”

Critical care work

In her keynote address, Jayati Ghosh, Professor in the Department of Economics, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, emphasized that the “perfect storm” of challenges described by Ms. Grynspan cannot be tackled without inclusion.

That means reducing inequalities, which will always engender backlash and pushback.

She also voiced concern over the continuing disinvestment in care work, a burden which will only increase amid future demographic challenges and climate change impacts.

“If we do not empower women … we will be unable to deal with the major challenges facing society,” she cautioned.

INTELLIGENCE
Taliban are running-in a 3 Front War


Published April 27, 2022
By Ajmal Sohail

Taliban fighters have been engaged in fighting in three parts of Afghanistan, as hostility was amplified on the Afghan-Iranian border by Iranian troops as Iranian border guards’ vehicles drove off near the Afghan border in pursuit of smugglers.

Subsequently, military forces from both countries (Afghanistan & Iran) are stationed near the Iran-Afghanistan border and are on high alert. Iranian Zahedan forces have arrived in the region with armored tanks, which are heavily equipped with heavy weapons.

Iranian military officials, through their representative in Kabul, have informed the Taliban’s defense ministry to stop fighting. In accordance with Iran’s intelligence service secret information Pakistan, at the request of the West, wants to engage the Taliban regime in a constant war with neighboring countries.

In this regard, Iranian officials accuse Mullah Mohammad Hassan and his supporters, including the Haqqani network. In addition, Iranian political officials have telephoned the office of acting Prime Minister Mullah Baradar to urge him to take “serious action” and stop Maulvi Yaqub and his forces engaging with Iran in military conflict.

According to the Iranian officials, this war is a foreign plan implemented by a number of groups within the Taliban. Troops on both sides of the border are now ready for battle and heavy weapons have been dispatched to the area by Iranian forces, but Iranian officials are still urging the Taliban to resolve the issue through talks.

The second fierce battle took place in the deep border area of ​​Garbiz district of Khost province when Pakistani troops tried to re-enter the house in search of TTP fighters. Garbiz is a district very close to North Waziristan and is often equipped and supplied TTP fighters from this place, and this is the home to many of the leaders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

An intelligence source from the same area reported, last Thursday that Pakistani SSG Special Forces, with the help of Haqqani network-linked fighters within the Afghan Taliban, raided civilian homes and sought to capture TTP leaders and supporters. The Haqqani network-linked fighters were then sent from that area to Baghlan province for military operations, and a special unit from the Sangin district of Helmand province was sent to the area, to prevent the entry of Pakistani troops.

Because the Pakistani military plans to use the Haqqani network to prevent the Afghan Taliban from setting up checkpoints on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

The third battle took place at 10 pm in Kapisa province. A rebel group was being formed in Kapisa province on the orders of former police chief Gen. Farid Ahmad Mashal, but was stopped by the Taliban.

The group, which has been formed but was not yet completed, now engaged in a fierce campaign to attract fighters. However, local GDI spies received a report about the group and started to crack it down.

Moreover, because the top military leaders of the previous republican government were not encouraged to form anti-Taliban groups to weaken the Taliban, the Taliban linked the group to the resistance, but in reality, the group had nothing to do with the resistance and wanted to launch anti-Taliban military operations in 34 Afghan provinces under the guise of freedom fighters.

ECOCIDE
Tunisia detains crew of sunken 'Xelo' fuel ship

Authorities are investigating whether the ship may have been deliberately sunk

The merchant ship Xelo sank in Tunisian territorial waters, in the Gulf of Gabes, on April 16. AP

The National
Apr 26, 2022

Seven crew members of a commercial ship that sank off Tunisia's coast have been detained, a judicial official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Authorities are investigating whether the ship may have been deliberately sunk off the southern city of Gabes this month.

Tunisian officials initially said that the Xelo sank as it travelled from Equatorial Guinea to Malta, while carrying up to 1,000 tonnes of oil, and the Tunisian navy had rescued all seven crew members.

READ MORE
Tunisian judge issues arrest warrants for seven crew members of sunken fuel ship

Officials later said a diving team sent to counter a potential environmental disaster found the ship was empty.

"The investigative judge issued a detention decision against the ship's crew," said Mohamed Karay, a spokesman for the Gabes court.

Mr Karay had previously said an investigation was being conducted to determine if the ship sank under normal circumstances or was sabotaged to obtain compensation from insurance companies. Authorities were also looking into the possibility of oil smuggling, he said.











Tunisia's Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui, centre, tours the port in Gabes after a merchant fuel ship sank off the coast. AFP

The crew of the ship comprised four Turks, two Azerbaijanis and one from Georgia.

They claimed the ship's route documentation had been lost, and there was a conflict in the information they provided, Mr Karay said.

Reuters could not immediately contact the crew, the ship owner or their legal representatives.

Updated: April 26, 2022

Israel’s measures increase tension, undermine two-state solution: Palestinian PM

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye said that the Israeli measures in the Palestinian territories would increase tension and undermine the two-state solution.

Ishtaye made the remarks during a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg in the West Bank city of Ramallah, to discuss bilateral relations and the political situation in the region, according to an official statement.

“The Israeli measures of accelerating the cycle of settlements, demolition of Palestinian homes, confiscation of land, the measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the daily raids on the West Bank towns are undermining the two-state solution,” Xinhua news agency reported citing Ishtaye.

He also referred to the economic and financial situations in the Palestinian territories, “which are completely linked to the Israeli measures and the Israeli control of the Palestinian resources.”

Earlier Tuesday, Schallenberg met with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad Al-Maliki in Ramallah.

At the end of their meeting, Al-Maliki told a news conference that the Palestinians are calling on the international community “to compel Israel to stop its violations and measures in the Palestinian territories, mainly in East Jerusalem.”

20220427-120204

 

DOT-MOM

New Global Health & Gender Policy Brief: The Global Care Economy

April 27, 2022 By Maternal Health Initiative Staff

Care work makes all other work possible. It is also the fastest-growing sector of work in the world—projected to add 150 million jobs by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the importance of care work. It has also exposed how women perform most caregiving work, which is unpaid, underpaid, and/or undervalued. Globally, women and girls contribute more than 70 percent of total global caregiving hours (paid and unpaid) and perform more than 75 percent of unpaid care work. The inordinate amount of unpaid care work women and girls perform prevents them from earning a paid income, which contributes to greater gender inequities worldwide.

The global care economy—the paid and unpaid labor related to caregiving such as childcare, elder care, and domestic chores—is a critical sector that enhances economic growth, gender equity, and women’s empowerment. Care work is economically valuable but globally undervalued. In the United States, contributions related to the care economy amount to $648 billion, annually. Globally, if unpaid care workers earned a minimum wage they would add nearly $11 trillion a year to the global economy.

In a new policy brief, The Global Care Economy, the Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative explores the economic and societal value of caregiving work, the burden of caregiving on women, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on caregivers. Investing in the paid and unpaid care workforce, creating family-friendly workplaces, and addressing the harmful social norms and the physical and mental burdens of caregiving are critical to support and value care work globally.

The Global Care Economy – P… by The Wilson Center

In the United States, women, especially women of color, are more likely to work in essential front-line occupations including care work, leaving them at higher risk of COVID-19 illness and mortality. This is also the case globally, where women and girls make up two-thirds of the paid care workforce.

Unpaid care work presents additional challenges for women. Globally, 647 million full-time unpaid caregivers are not seeking a job due to their caregiving responsibilities. Most (93 percent) are women. In the United States, more than 1 in 5 adults were unpaid family caregivers prior to the pandemic. Now, an estimated 43 percent of adults in the United States are unpaid caregivers.

While there have been some policy-level interventions to support caregivers in the United States and globally, greater investments are needed to appropriately value and support care work. Investing in the paid and unpaid care workforce can result in increased household earnings, a more gender-equitable distribution of unpaid care work, and improved working conditions in the paid care sector. To support parents in the workforce, it is critical to support family-friendly workplaces through flexible leave policies. Additionally, policies and programs must address harmful social norms that contribute to the unequal distribution of care work.

This Global Health & Gender Policy Brief was made possible through the generous support of EMD Serono, the healthcare business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

Sources: The Care Economy Knowledge Hub, Center for Economic and Policy Research, International Labour Organization, McKinsey & Company, Oxfam International, Political Economy Research Institute, The Holding Co., Where You Live Matters, World Economic Forum

Photo Credit: Working mother taking notes while daughter is sitting on her lap. Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock.com.

 

Report

Apr 27, 2022

Chinese FDI in Europe: 2021 Update

Investments remain on downward trajectory – Focus on venture capital

Building a long-standing collaboration between Rhodium Group and MERICS, this report summarizes China's investment footprint on the EU-27 and the UK in 2021, analyzing the shifting patterns in China's FDI, as well as policy developements in Europe and China.

Key findings

• Chinese outbound investment to the rest of the world stalled in 2021. While overall global FDI rebounded strongly, Chinese outbound FDI edged up by just 3 percent to USD 114 billion (EUR 96 billion). Meanwhile, China’s global outbound M&A activity slipped in 2021 to a 14-year low, with completed M&A transactions totaling just EUR 20 billion, down 22 percent from an already weak 2020.
• China’s FDI in Europe (EU-27 and the UK) increased but remained on its multi-year downward trajectory. Last year, completed Chinese FDI in Europe increased 33 percent to EUR 10.6 billion, from EUR 7.9 billion in 2020. The increase was driven by two factors: a EUR 3.7 billion acquisition of the Philips home appliance business by Hong Kong-based private equity firm Hillhouse Capital and record high greenfield investment of EUR 3.3 billion. Still, 2021 was the second lowest year (above only 2020) for China’s investment in Europe since 2013. 
• The Netherlands received most Chinese investment, followed by Germany, France and the UK. Hillhouse Capital’s takeover of the Philips business made the Netherlands the biggest destination for Chinese investment in 2021. Germany, France and the UK accounted for another 39 percent of total Chinese investment. 
• The share of Chinese state-owned investors fell to a 20-year low in Europe. Compared with 2020, investment by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) decreased by 10 percent. Their share of total Chinese investment also reached its lowest point in 20 years, at 12 percent. SOE investment was concentrated in energy and infrastructure, particularly in southern Europe. 
• Consumer products and automotive were the top sectors. Due to the Hillhouse Capital acquisition, investment in consumer products surged to EUR 3.8 billion. Activity in automotive was driven by Chinese greenfield investments in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Together, the two sectors accounted for 59 percent of total investment value. The next three biggest sectors were health, pharma and biotech; information and communications technology (ICT); and energy. 
• The nature of Chinese investment in Europe is changing. After years of being dominated by M&A, Chinese investment in Europe has become more focused on greenfield projects. In 2021, greenfield investment reached EUR 3.3 billion, the highest ever recorded value, making up almost a third of all Chinese FDI. 
• Chinese venture capital (VC) investment is pouring into European tech start-ups. In 2021, Chinese VC investment in Europe more than doubled to the record level of EUR 1.2 billion. It was concentrated in the UK and Germany, and focused on a handful sectors including e-commerce, fintech, gaming, AI and robotics. 
• Chinese investment in Europe is unlikely to rebound in 2022. The Chinese government is expected to stick to strict capital controls, financial deleveraging and Covid-19 restrictions. The war in Ukraine and expanding screening regimes and scrutiny of Chinese investment in the EU and the UK will create additional headwinds. 

READ/DOWNLOAD PDF HERE 

Chinese FDI in Europe: 2021 Update | Merics

UH OH
UAE vows 'responsible' artificial intelligence rollout

A two-seater a prototype driverless "hover taxi" flying in a "concept" flight in Dubai in 2017, seen this photograph provided by United Arab Emirates News Agency - Handout

by Dana Moukhallati
April 27, 2022 — Dubai (AFP)


The world's first minister for artificial intelligence says the United Arab Emirates isn't only looking for economic benefits as it seeks to become a leading nation in the sector.

The UAE's minister of state for AI, Omar bin Sultan al-Olama, said "quality of life" considerations were key, and also stressed the importance of a "responsible" rollout -- with impacts potentially reverberating for decades.

"We are looking at AI as a tool," he told AFP in an interview in Dubai. "It's a tool that we need to use to unleash the quality of life aspect."

The UAE also calls AI "machine intelligence", defining it as a branch of technology enabling systems to "think, learn, and make decisions like humans", which can support everything from virology to transport.

"Yes, economic gain is something that every country wants, and we want it too," Olama added. "But... we want to ensure the development and deployment and the use of AI is responsible."

Olama was just 27 when he was handed the cabinet-level position in 2017, tasked with launching the oil-rich Arab nation's strategy in a field which touches everything from speech and facial recognition to commerce and autonomous cars.

His appointment came a year after the UAE also named ministers for happiness, hoping to create a "happier society", and tolerance, mainly aimed at promoting coexistence in the Gulf country where foreigners make up the majority of the population.

The UAE's stated goal is to become one of the leading AI nations by 2031, creating new economic and business opportunities and generating up to 335 billion dirhams ($91 billion) in extra growth.

According to consultancy firm PwC Middle East, nearly 14 percent ($96 billion) of the UAE's gross domestic product will come from AI by 2030.

"The UAE was the only country that appointed someone to actually oversee this mandate seriously," Olama said.

- Driverless taxis -

The wealthy Gulf country has invested heavily in technology over the past decade as it diversifies its economy and reduces its reliance on oil.

Its bets include driverless cars, with autonomous taxis already tested on the streets of the capital Abu Dhabi, while Dubai, another of the country's seven emirates, aims to have a quarter of its transport driverless by 2030.

Abu Dhabi's Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, touted as the world's first graduate-level AI university, opened to students last year, and the country has launched a number of start-up hubs and training schemes.

However, the UAE has also drawn concern over its high levels of surveillance, and in 2019 it denied reports that a popular mobile app was being used for government spying.

Olama said a big part of his job was instilling public confidence and avoiding costly errors when AI systems are put in place.

The dangers of AI include inadvertently introducing bias against certain groups of people, which could prove damaging in areas such as public services.

"It entails that there's no controversy around the deployment," Olama said of his role. "It entails that we focus on deploying it today, but in a way that makes sure it does not impact future generations negatively."

- 'Element of fear' -

An important step in the project, he said, was to properly explain AI to senior officials, to "demystify" the technology and reduce the "element of fear".

"If you're dealing with something you don't understand, you will have an aspect or element of fear associated with it, it's human nature," he said.

"One programme... is focused on training senior government officials on understanding what AI is, understanding the ethical dilemma, understanding what good and bad deployments are, how do you remove bias.

"Today, these people are our AI army. They are the people that are deploying AI across government, and really have a very strong foundation that they can build on."

The UAE also has ambitions of becoming a major player in other areas of science and technology, sending its first astronaut into space in 2019 and launching a probe in 2020 that went into Mars' orbit the following year.

This month, the country announced a digital economy strategy -- including a council headed by Olama -- hoping the sector will contribute 20 percent of GDP within 10 years.

"I don't think in the next quarter-of-a-century there's going to be an economy in the world that is not dependent for the majority of its economic activity on the digital realm, and AI is a big component of that," said Olama.

"I also think we have not seen the true impact of AI on the economy."

Los Angeles reflects on 30th anniversary of deadly 'multi-ethnic' riots

2022/4/26 
© Agence France-Presse

Thirty years ago, Los Angeles erupted in deadly violence after four police officers were acquitted of the savage beating of Rodney King, despite graphic video footage of the attack

Los Angeles (AFP) - A multi-ethnic group of Los Angeles community leaders will gather on Friday, marking 30 years since their city was engulfed in a wave of violence following the acquittal of white police officers for the beating of Rodney King, a Black man.

The deadly 1992 Los Angeles riots inflamed deep-seated tensions across America's second largest city, as fury in the Black community at racial injustice boiled over and Korean-American and other immigrant shopkeepers bore the brunt of the carnage.

"There's nothing romantic, nothing enticing, nothing beautiful about celebrating what happened for those six days," said "J" Edgar Boyd, pastor at First AME, the city's oldest African-American church.

"But what we have agreed to do, is to take the ugliness and the disparities of those things that happened then, and own them for being reality."

Sprawling Los Angeles has long prided itself on being one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse cities on Earth.

But racial groups have often clustered in divided communities, from wealthy white Bel-Air to Black Baldwin Hills and Latino East Los Angeles -- all just a few miles apart.

On April 29, 1992, despite graphic video footage of the beating of King, the closely-watched trial of the four cops ended with verdicts of "not guilty."

That night, violence first broke out in then-predominantly Black South Los Angeles, where many mom-and-pop stores were run by Korean immigrants.

Looting gangs brought violence and arson to Koreatown itself, where gun-wielding Korean vigilantes took to shop roofs to defend their properties, in images beamed around the world.

By the end of the anarchy, around 60 people were dead, 2,000 injured and approximately $1 billion in damages had been wrought -- almost half suffered by Korean-American owners.

The violence was "America's first multi-ethnic riots," said Edward Chang, professor of ethnic studies at University of California, Riverside.
'Poor fighting the poor'

Walking through Koreatown today -- a trendy, sprawling neighborhood whose name belies the fact it is now majority Latino -- it is hard to imagine those apocalyptic scenes 30 years ago.

But in 1992, racial tensions were already simmering because of the fatal shootings of two Black customers by Korean store owners in separate incidents months earlier.

Neither of the killers of Lee Arthur Mitchell and 15-year-old Latasha Harlins spent a day in prison, broiling resentment between communities riven by stark economic and cultural divides.

"It was not necessarily an intent to go after Korean American businesses... the intent was to respond to the lack of justice that was continually perpetuated upon the Black community," said Boyd.

But for many protesters, the perception -- accurate or not -- of Koreans as "absentee shop owners" with no interest in "pouring back into the community part of what they took out" made them easy targets, said Boyd.

According to David Ryu, a teen at the time of the riots who became Los Angeles' first Korean-American councilmember, the violence was less a "Korean-Black conflict" and more "the poor fighting the poor."

Back in the 1990s, Korean-Americans were just the latest group to set up in inner-city Los Angeles, following earlier Jewish, Italian and Eastern European store owners.

Ryu's parents had sold their toy store not long before the building was torched by looters.

"Because they couldn't get mad at white America, or the powers-that-be, they got mad at the person in front of them," said Ryu, drawing a link to the city's Watts Riots of 1965.

This time, "anger was displaced on the Korean-Americans," he said.
'Their American Dream'

According to Chang, viewing US race relations as an "anti-Blackness" or "Black-versus-white" issue is an "East Coast bias" that ignores Los Angeles' complex tapestry.

In 1992, Los Angeles police "decided not to protect and serve the community they were supposed to -- Koreatown was abandoned," recalled Chang.

"Korean immigrants had no choice but to defend their stores. That was their livelihood, that was their American Dream."

For some, there are parallels with recent attacks on Asian-Americans, which have risen during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, hate crimes against Asian-Americans rose over 300 percent last year.

This Friday, Los Angeles leaders will gather to highlight ties between their communities, including a First AME community service held in a building financed by a Korean bank.

"That's a great milestone. They did it when we could not get other (banks) -- Black or otherwise -- to do it," said Boyd.

"What we're going to do on the 29th is to show the world, and Los Angeles, that we intend to be big enough to mitigate the breaches that took place on that infamous day."

THE PEASANTS RIOTED AGAINST THE DUTCH , JEWISH, GERMAN, ETC SHOP KEEPERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES, OFTEN SUPPORTED IN THESE POGROMS BY THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES; SUCH AS VLAD TEPES OF TRANSLVANIA (HE IMPALED DUTCH SHOP KEEPERS FOR TAX AVOIDANCE)

Canada's working-age population is older than ever, StatsCan says

Peter Zimonjic - 1h ago
cbc.ca


Canada's working-age population is older than it has ever been, with more than one in five working adults now nearing retirement in a demographic shift that will create significant challenges to the Canadian workforce in the coming decade, according to new census figures released Wednesday.


© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

The Statistics Canada building and signs are pictured in Ottawa in July 2019. The agency said Wednesday that more than one in five working adults is now nearing retirement, which will create significant challenges for Canada's workforce.

Calling it a "date with demographic destiny," Laurent Martel, director for the centre of demography at Statistics Canada, said: "Canada is at a very special place right now" in its demographic history.

"There are very large implications of this situation and it is certainly one factor explaining the current labour shortages that Canada is experiencing."

The Canadian population now has a larger proportion of people aged 55 to 64 than it does of those aged 15 to 24, the age at which people enter the workforce.

In 1966, there were 200 people aged 15 to 24 for every 100 Canadians aged 55 to 64, but that has now been flipped on its head. In 2021, there were only 81 people aged 15 to 24 for every 100 Canadians in the 55 to 64 age group.

"There are challenges associated with an older workforce, including knowledge transfer, retaining experienced employees and workforce renewal," the agency said in its report.

Statistics Canada says that this trend can be slowed through immigration, but "an increase in immigration — even a large one — would not significantly curb this projected drop."

The 2021 census says that while declining fertility rates and an increased life expectancy are important factors, the single most significant driver of Canada's aging population trend is the ongoing retirement of baby boomers (Canadians born between 1946 and 1965 ), which began in 2011.

Despite this news, Statistics Canada says the country still has one of the youngest working-age populations in the G7 after the U.S. and the United Kingdom, with 15- to 64-year-olds making up 64.8 per cent of the population compared to Japan, where it's less than 60 per cent.

In the U.S., the slightly younger workforce is a result of a slightly higher fertility rate, while in the U.K., it is a combination of a higher fertility rate and a relatively smaller number of baby boomers, Statistics Canada said.

An aging population

It's not just Canada's workforce that is aging significantly, it's the population as a whole, Statistics Canada said.

From 2016 to 2021, the number of Canadians aged 65 and older rose 18.3 per cent to seven million, the second-largest increase in 75 years, after the increase recorded from 2011 to 2016, which was a rise of more than 20 per cent.

The seven million Canadians 65 and older make up 19 per cent of the population, up from 16.9 per cent at the time of the last census.

A closer look shows that the number of Canadians aged 85 and older rose almost 12 per cent from the time of the last census, while Canadians aged over 100 rose by more than 15 per cent.

"Over the next 30 years, the number of persons aged 85 and older could triple from 861,000 to 2.7 million," the agency said.

Statistics Canada population projections indicate that by 2051, almost one-quarter of the population could be aged 65 and older and include almost 12 million people.

CANADA

Posthaste: Emboldened workers are pushing for higher paycheques as inflation soars

A larger salary is now the No. 1 reason why employees said they'd leave their current jobs, according to EY's 2022 Work Reimagined Survey.

Victoria Wells -

Financial Post

Good morning!

Workers around the world, flexing their newfound bargaining muscle amid tight labour markets, have begun pushing for higher pay as inflation soars, new research suggests.

A larger salary is now the No. 1 reason why employees said they’d leave their current jobs, according to EY’s 2022 Work Reimagined Survey . That’s a change from last year’s research, when a desire for flexibility topped the reasons why people said they’d consider quitting.

Worldwide, 43 per cent said they are looking to change jobs in the next year and 35 per cent of those said it’s because they want to be paid more. Opportunities for career advancement are also a top want, and would spur 25 per cent to leave. But when it comes to flexibility, only 19 per cent said they’d quit their current jobs for one that offered the ability to work from home.

The shift reflects how workplaces have already adapted to employee wants since the pandemic began, EY said. The option to work remotely is now a given for many employees, after staff made it clear that’s what they expected from employers. Indeed, 80 per cent of those surveyed said they want the freedom to opt out of the office at least twice a week.

With flexibility covered, workers have now turned their attention to the climbing inflation rate. In Canada, inflation rose 6.7 per cent in March from a year earlier, the biggest gain since January 1991, Statistics Canada reported. Consumers are consequently dealing with a surge in prices at the gas pump and grocery store, highlighting why a higher paycheque is now more important than ever.

“This latest survey shows that employees around the world are feeling empowered to leave their jobs if their expectations are not met. As employers have increasingly provided flexible work approaches, higher pay is now the biggest motivation for changing jobs, particularly given rising inflation and valuable unfilled roles,” Liz Fealy, EY’s global people advisory services deputy leader and workforce advisory leader, said in a release.

Employers don’t seem ready to cave on pay expectations, however. Only 18 per cent of those surveyed said they think salary hikes can help address a rise in staff departures.

It’s a challenging time for employers looking to fill roles. Tight labour markets are impacting many countries, including Canada. The unemployment rate dropped to a record 5.3 per cent in March, Statistics Canada data showed earlier this month. That’s making it harder for employers to fill vacancies because fewer workers are available in the labour pool.

At the same time, employers are dealing with a high turnover rate as people seek greener pastures, confident they will find what they want in a new organization. Many of these emboldened workers are comprised of gen Z and millennials, EY’s survey showed. Across sectors, people with tech jobs are more likely to say they’d look for something new within the year. That could be an alarming statistic for many employers already battling to find and hold on to scarce tech talent.

Employers must listen to what staff are asking for if they want to stem losses and improve their corporate culture, EY said. Some companies have already made strides in improving staff satisfaction by focusing on hybrid work, investing in on-site technology and giving employees more freedom.

“We are seeing a top third of companies successfully navigating these divergent positions on pay, career opportunities and flexibility. They have moved from ‘resistance’ to ‘renaissance’ and that’s a win-win for their companies and their workforce,” Roselyn Feinsod, EY’s work reimagined leader, said in a release.

“Organizations have to work to retain their employees, instil trust and provide a package that takes into account total pay, career path and flexibility to balance market concerns and risks.”

The survey, conducted in January through March of this year, polled 1,500 managers and 17,000 employees across 22 countries and 26 industries.