Relying on employment incomes once meant lower risk of food insecurity —
not anymore

New research using data from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey shows that relying on employment income no longer protects Canadian households from food insecurity.

In our study published in Health Reports, we examined how vulnerability to household food insecurity changed between 2019 and 2023, a period marked by major economic disruption from the  COVID-19 pandemic and record inflation.

Food insecurity is a reflection of public policies and the labour market’s failure to ensure households have enough money for basic needs and the structural inequities that make it harder for some groups to have adequate financial resources.

While households with lower income, less education, renters, Indigenous households, families with children, and households relying on social assistance or Employment Insurance remained at higher risk, households across all sociodemographic and economic groups became more likely to be food-insecure in later years.

The most notable change is the risk of food insecurity for households reliant on employment income. In 2019 and 2021, these households were less likely to be food insecure than those relying on other sources of income, but by 2023, that protective effect had disappeared.

This finding raises additional concern about the nature of jobs in Canada and the need for policies to better support working families. With two-thirds of food-insecure households reliant on employment income, simply having a job has never guaranteed food security. As food insecurity increasingly affects the workforce, it is critical that jobs enable Canadians to make ends meet.

Read the paper, Changes in households’ vulnerability to food insecurity in Canada before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fafard St-Germain, A. A., Li, T., & Tarasuk, V. (2024). Changes in households’ vulnerability to food insecurity in Canada before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Reports, 36(12). https://www.doi.org/10.25318/82-003-x202501200001-eng