Future of work
A curated resource of recent research on trends shaping Canada's labour market.
This report quantifies occupational risk in the United Kingdom for 273 occupations based on workplace exposure to illness and physical proximity to people. A similar exercise is available in the New York Times for occupations in the United States.
Each occupation is scored on two indices — exposure and physical proximity — that are combined to generate a risk identification factor (RIF) value of between 0 and 100. The average RIF is 50; occupations with a RIF greater than 70 are deemed “high risk.” There are 28 high-risk occupations, 22 of which are considered “key workers” and therefore most likely to be required to continue working even during the lockdown.
A key finding of this report is that women are disproportionately represented among the high-risk occupations, specifically among workers who earn poverty wages (i.e., less than 2/3 of the median wage). Over one million high-risk jobs pay poverty wages, and 98% of these workers are women.