News

The wave of Canadians going back to school during the recession has the right idea.

A working paper, by University of British Columbia's Craig Riddell and York University's Xueda Song, has found the chances of “re-employment” – or finding work after a period of unemployment – rise by 27 percentage points if you've finished high school.

The probability of finding work again increases as education levels rise. Every additional year of school increases the chance of re-employment by 2 to 3 percentage points, the study shows.

The findings validate decisions by thousands of Canadians who are heading back to school. School enrolment tends to jump in lockstep with every recession, and it's been no different this time: Full-time enrolment at Canadian universities climbed 4.6 per cent this September. College enrolment is also up.

The research offers evidence “that supports education as an effective means to enhance adaptability, a valuable characteristic in a changing labour market,” the authors said.

Their findings come as more than three-quarters of a million Canadians are receiving jobless benefits and 1.5 million people are out of work.

The study, entitled “The Causal Effects of Education on Adaptability to Employment Shocks: Evidence from the Canadian Labour Market,” is based on data from the 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 censuses. It was completed earlier this year and published in the October edition of the newsletter Labour Market Matters.

Nine of every ten Canadians have finished secondary school and a quarter of adults aged 25 to 64 have a university degree, according to Statistics Canada.