For the past decade the urban aboriginal population has been one of the fastest growing in the country. In 2001, almost half the aboriginals in Canada lived off reserve; today that number has risen to over 75 per cent.

In Ottawa, the aboriginal population has more than doubled in 10 years, increasing from 13,495 in 2001 to 30,565 in 2011, according census and national household survey data provided by Statistics Canada.

It is the same in metropolitan areas across the country.

A study completed in 2010 by The Environics Institute, called the Urban Aboriginal People’s Survey, dispelled the conventional belief that aboriginal people living in cities are just passing through. Instead, most are happy with their lives in the city and a lot of them have been living in an urban setting for two or three generations.

What I hope to show is that, while there are many reasons for aboriginal peoples to move to the city, one things is for sure: urban aboriginals are here to stay.

This graphic was created using Statistics Canada census data from 2001 and 2006, as well as 2011 National Household Survey data. It demonstrates the growth of Ottawa’s aboriginal population, which has been growing steadily in the past decade — more than doubling from 2001 to 2011.

This graphic was created using 2011 National Household Survey data. It shows the age distribution of the aboriginal population in Ottawa. Since a large majority of aboriginal citizens in Ottawa are working age adults and children, it shows that the population in Ottawa probably consists mostly of families, demonstrating that the urban aboriginal population in Ottawa is here to stay and not just students who are passing through.

According to the 2011 National Household Survey, the unemployment rate of immigrants that have landed in the last five years sits at 15.5 per cent, while the unemployment rate of Canadian-born citizens is 6.4 per cent. Immigrants from different countries also experience unemployment, with immigrants from places such as Africa being especially high. Seeing as English language speaking countries do not experience the high unemployment rates, it’s obvious that the reason for these rates is the difference in language and culture. Discrimination may also play a factor, though that’s up for debate.

By Michael Timmermans

DATA FEATURE – DATA PORTION – FINAL
Dani-Elle Dubé
Data set: Sunshine List 2012

Female Physicians in the Ontario Healthcare Workforce 2012

Being a doctor used to be a man’s profession. But over the years, more and more women physicians have entered the field of practice and broken barriers. Or have they?

Every year the Ontario Ministry of Finance is required to release a public sector salary disclosure, a categorical list that provides the income and tax benefit details of every public service worker in the province who makes over $100,000.
Informally known as the “Sunshine List”, the ministry must submit the report as part of the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act of 1996.

Using the data, I will explore where women physicians stand in the healthcare field. More specifically, I will be comparing their incomes to their male counterparts through various means using graphs, charts and maps. As well, I will be exploring where most women tend to practice according to volume and which healthcare facilities tend to make the most income in terms of their female physician employees.

Although the Sunshine List provides some data, it does not paint an entire picture of where women physicians stand because of Ontario’s billing practices. Only but a few physicians are actual employees of hospitals, while others have different circumstances. Many physicians provide their own billing, such as the case of most specialists and family doctors, while others provide care through their own privately owned practices.

The used data below is based solely on what was provided in the list by the ministry and does not include those with private practices or under contract. The available number of total physicians in the disclosure was 147, 87 of which are men and 60 women.

Background

As side research, I consulted the 2013 National Physician’s Survey. This survey is given out too physicians all over Canada asking questions about their demographics, work, personal life and so on.

According to the 2013 National Physician’s Survey, there are approximately 8,800 female physicians in Ontario and 14,200 male physicians.

In many situations, the survey revealed that women tend to feel more overworked with a higher instance of unemployment compared to male physicians. They also worked less overall in a 52-week period and tend to feel more dissatisfied with their professional life.

NOTE: TO READ A PDF-VERSION OF THIS STORY WITH ALL THE CHARTS, PLEASE GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD.
DATA

As predicted, more men than women physicians appeared on the salary disclosure document. As well, collectively, men pulled in more money overall at $24,039,432.62 than women at $16,787,953.06. That is a different of $7,251,479.62.

Only two of the top five income earners were female. Combined, the women earned $834,243.63 while male physicians earned a combined total of $1,398,448.03. That is $564,204.40 more than what women earned. As well, the top salary earner overall, Thomas Stewart, made $576,626.40 in 2012 and the top female earner (who came in second), Kelly S. MacDonald, made $431,724.51. That is a difference of $144,901.89 between the top male earner and top female earner.

Out of the top 10 highest salaries, four of them were women. Collectively, women pulled in $1,604,671.01 in 2012. That same year, the men altogether made $2,559,975.59. That is a difference of $955,304.58.

The top five female earners, together, pulled in $1,982,995.30 while all top five male earners collectively made $2,178,716.80. That is a $195,721.50, or 0.10 per cent difference in earnings.

The lowest top earner of females makes $378,324.29 and the lowest male top earner $386.268.74.

What’s interesting, however, is that women physicians tend to earn more salary on average than men physicians, but not by much. On average, women earn $279,799.22 and men $276,315.32. That’s a difference of only $3,483.90.

Taking a closer look, we see that the women physicians of the University Health Network collectively make the most salary at $7,313,728.675 compared to other hospitals in the province. The least, however, was London Health Sciences Centre at $118,453.66. There were 23 women physicians that appeared on the list that were employed by the University Health Network. On average, women of the Network earned $317,988.20. However, there was only one woman from the London Health Sciences Centre that appeared on the list with a salary of $118,453.66. But looking the males that were employed by the London Health Sciences Centre that appeared on the list shows that only one man was employed with a salary of $156,848.30. Thirty-one men were employed by the University Health Network with an average collective income of $319,386.51.

You may also view the Google map that physically displays all of the hospital locations and collective incomes of female physicians in Ontario here:
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1pnsUs5a8ZtUGFziAymzVc8U73lkCr3wZkBGnlW8

https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1pnsUs5a8ZtUGFziAymzVc8U73lkCr3wZkBGnlW8

The number of Ottawa citizens calling 311 rose in 2010 from 247,933 to 274,030 in 2011 according to an analysis of the 2011 City of Ottawa 311 service request volumes. The volume of calls is on the rise each year because of the growing population in Ottawa.

As the city grows, more and more people are picking up their phones, dialing 311 and complaining about an infraction or something they presume to be a cause for concern.

A video report conducted by CBC Jeff Semple in 2011 showed that complaints over the past ten years have nearly tripled: http://video.ca.msn.com/watch/video/snitch-city/16a5g2ui4.

Semple said that the most amount of calls to 311 dealt with parking. Derek Spalding of the Ottawa Citizen recently uncovered that the noise volume in Ottawa has gone up over the years as well and has compiled data about the some of the noisiest wards.

The story I hope the data will tell is that it’s not only noise or parking that people are calling in to the City of Ottawa about. There are other factors why people are calling in 311, and they include: animals, graffiti, tree maintenance, the rain barrel program and road travelled surface issues.

And with the growing population in Ottawa, these numbers will undoubtedly increase and new issues might arise that people call in 2013 when the data is released in several months.

I plan to look at the 2013 data when released and see if there are any new trends that people have called about.  Maybe some issues that haven’t been called in the past, are becoming more prevalent? Or maybe there are some prevalent issues discussed in earlier years, that aren’t being discussed anymore?

Further, I would like to identify the common issues or complaints people are calling in about in another Canadian province that has a similar or same population per capita as Ottawa. It would be interesting to compare the two cities, side-by-side and see if commonalities arise.

And perhaps, new initiatives are in the works or have already been launched to deter people from calling 311 and the city is advising people to check their complaint online before calling?

In 2011 alone, 13,233 calls were made to 311 in regards to Bylaw Services about animals. Of those 12,233 calls, the highest calls were made from the Rideau-Vanier ward with 1,102 and 939 calls from the College ward.

The highest amount of 311 calls received were about Tree Maintenance with 15,256, Road Travelled Surface (road maintenance) with 14,801 calls and to round out the top three, 14,266 calls were made concerning garbage collection (solid waste collection).

In 2011, a total of 2,800 calls were made about noise. The calls came from the Rideau-Vanier ward and 1,804 calls from the Somerset ward.

Over 2,321 calls were made about graffiti dealing with vandalism in 2011. Those calls originated from the Somerset ward with the most calls in the graffiti (vandalism) category with 220 calls. Alta Vista was the ward with the most calls in the graffiti (offensive) category with 16 calls. And finally, Barrhaven was the ward with the most calls in the graffiti (hate) category with 12 calls.

Data found: http://app06.ottawa.ca/en/city_hall/statisticsdata/opendata/info/service_request/

In Ottawa there are over 130 local agencies under the Ottawa Food Bank umbrella to offer essential resources to individuals and families in need.
To control fair distribution of supplies, there is a search tool on the Ottawa Website where users can enter their address to find the food bank closest to their home.
However, there is no full list of addresses for each agency available for fear of people taking advantage of the system.
A number of agencies offer interactive programs like breakfast clubs etc. which do not have the same restrictions that apply to supply distribution — anyone from anywhere can attend.
I constructed an excel sheet myself, by gathering the names of 27 main agencies in Ottawa which offer these programs from the Ottawa Food Bank website, searched Google to find corresponding addresses and used the City of Ottawa website to pin point the ward each address is in.
This will show how many and which food banks are fully accessible to people in each section of Ottawa.

This fusion table shows the names of each agency, with its the address and ward number.

This heat map depicts the number of Food Banks that are available per ward in Ottawa. It can be deducted that the areas with the most food banks have the largest demand for their presence. Alta Vista, Ward 18, has the most with four available food banks and must host a lot of people who are financially distraught.

I can post the full article later, as it is currently not completed. I wanted to make sure my data portion was submitted.

Data Writeup

I found my data at http://ottawa.ca/sites/ottawa.ca/files/oph_substance_misuse_2013_en.pdf

The data that I choose to use in my story was two graphs that I made. I made these graphs after reviewing the data from my source. The title of my first graph is HIV Cases who Injected Drugs. The reason I made this graph was because it was extremely relevant to my story. The HIV cases in Ottawa is important to my story because I talk in length about the effects of injecting drugs and the consequences of sharing needles (HIV).
The second graph that I made is titled The Top 10 Causes of Hospitalization Attributed to Drug Use, Ottawa. This information is important and relevant to my story because it identifies the various drugs that cause hospitalization in Ottawa. Opioids are at the top of the list. These graphs help tell my story and allow for visual confirmation.

A big problem with small solutions

Ottawa’s opioid dependency and methadone clinics

A growing problem in North America is substance abuse. Over the last decade hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by opioid addiction. This problem effects both health and crime in Ottawa. In order to help control this epidemic methadone clinics have opened their doors to people who want to get help.

In Ottawa, opioids are a growing problem. On average each year, opioids such as heroin and fentanyl are the leading cause of overdoses in the city. At least thirty six people died from overdosing in Ottawa last year. Drug dependency is the second largest reason people in Ottawa are hospitalized from drug use, following unintentional injuries.

Opioids are a family of drug that stem from opium, they are used to treat severe pain. Heroin is the most commonly known illegal opioid and has been around since the early 20^th century. Heroin can be abused in a variety of ways; it can be injected, inhaled and ingested. Other opioids include; oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, hydromorphone and meperidine.

Doctors often prescribe these powerful painkillers to people suffering from chronic pain, arthritis, severe back pain and other types of pain. Although these drugs can be used as effective painkillers, they are often abused for feelings of intense pleasure. These feelings of pleasure can lead to excessive use therefore resulting in addiction.

When an individual becomes addicted to an opioid the consequences can be extreme and severe. These people begin to steal and commit crimes in order to feed their addiction. Many people lose their jobs, family, friends and even homes due to their drug addiction. These people become disconnected from society and enter a world where only one thing matters, the need to get high. Everyday these people struggle to get money then find their substance in order to avoid becoming sick. When an addict does not do any drugs for a short period of time, even 24 hours, their bodies start going through a process called withdrawal.

When an addict begins going through withdrawal many symptoms occur. The early symptoms of opioid withdrawal are agitation, muscle aches, anxiety, insomnia, increased tearing of the eyes, sweating, runny nose, yawning and mood swings. If the addict continues to not consume any opioids the withdrawal continues and gets worse. The latter symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal cramping, goose bumps, nausea, dilated pupils, vomiting and hot cold sweats.

These withdrawal symptoms are the main reason addicts do not quit. The withdrawal process is very painful and strenuous and most people never make the transition to become clean and sober. This is a major problem because it causes addicts to become very desperate and when someone is desperate they will do anything to obtain their fix, including crime.

Crime and substance abuse are closely tied together. The correlation is evident in a variety of ways but most commonly in theft. Addicts are known criminals, especially thieves. An average heroin addict spends anywhere from one hundred to five hundred dollars a day. In order to obtain this money these people steal and commit crimes to make illegal money. Although prescription pill addicts spend significantly less than heroin addicts the outcome are still the same, crime funds their addiction.

One solution to this problem has been increased law enforcement. Increased police cracking down on crime catching those responsible for crimes such as theft and illegal drug trafficking, but this does not fix the problem. Police arrest and prosecute addicts but ignore the real problem, their dependency to opioids. If opioids are on the street then the problem will continue reducing the long-term effects of increased law enforcement. The best solution to this problem is treating those dependent on drugs and reducing the amount of people who will become addicted in the future. If the addicts have alternate relief then they will no longer need to commit crimes to feed their addiction.

A recently new method and solution to the problem of drug addiction and crime is methadone.

Methadone is a synthetic opioid used by specialty doctors to treat opioid addiction. Because methadone is a synthetic opioid it acts on the same receptors of opioid drugs such as heroin and morphine. Methadone allows addicts to avoid the severe pains of withdrawal while also avoiding illegal drug activity. This alternative offers a longer duration of relief while being professionally monitored by physicians.

In Ottawa methadone clinics have received thousands of clients. These people are addicts who voluntarily participate in the methadone program in order to improve their lives. These individuals attend the clinic daily to receive their methadone orally in a drink and once a week to check in with the doctor. Currently there are four clinics in Ottawa.

The Ontario Addiction Treatment Centres have two methadone clinics in Ottawa. These clinics are located on Carling Avenue and Somerset Street West. These clinics are provincially owned and operated. Another clinic is located on Nelson Street. This clinic is part of the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre and hosts a variety of programs to help the community. The newest addition to the clinic scene of Ottawa is located at 11 Selkirk Street. This clinic called Recovery Ottawa was recently opened in order to bring a new positive outlook on methadone clinics.

Dr. Mark Ujjainwalla is in charge of the new clinic and truly wants to make a difference in Ottawa. This clinic aims to help patients by using a more approachable method to its audience. Patients are able to walk in and be seen by a doctor the same day unlike other clinics that often have long waiting lists.

“It is a much needed clinic and program in Ottawa,” said Dr. Ujjainwalla. “Our clinic tries to reduce the stigma associated with addiction.”

Recovery Ottawa is the first clinic to use modern technology such as the fingerprint scanner in order to maintain a more successful facility. The staff at the clinic produces a positive atmosphere in order to eliminate any embarrassment the clients may have. The clinic also helps their patients with other services such as nutrition, transportation, housing and legal issues. This is very important because it not only helps individual’s get clean and sober but stay clean and sober as well.

Health issues are amongst the most important issues when it comes to people who suffer from addiction. People who inject drugs are very vulnerable to becoming infected by HIV and HCV. These people share needles and therefore share their diseases. In a study conducted in 2011, 12.6% of needle users had HIV and 72.6% had HCV in Ottawa. These diseases also affect people who inhale drugs as well. The spread of these deadly diseases is a major problem that has been acted upon by various groups and programs in Ottawa.

Safer Consumption Services in Canada (SCS) has been integrated into drug treatment and harm reduction programs in Canada. SCS objectives include; preventing transmitted infections such as HIV and HCV, improving addicts access to health care services, contributing to the overall safety and quality of communities, and reducing the impact of open drug scenes.

Another group is the Campaign for Safer Consumption Sites in Ottawa (CSCS). This group is made up of community members who promote safe consumption sites in Ottawa. They believe in harm reduction, the expansion of social and health care services, preventative measure and evidence based drug policies. This group is extremely important and encourages a solution to safer drug use in the city.

The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre is an excellent source of promoting and reducing drug addiction in Ottawa. Rob Scobie is one of many individuals at the Health Centre who helps make the city a safer place. Scobie works in the Harm Reduction part of the Health Centre and personally works with addicts. Every Friday Scobie hosts The Five Pack program and works with voluntary addicts making safe injection packs. These packs are filled with five syringes, five waters, five cookers, five alcohol swabs and five prevention cards.

“The program exists in order to provide users with safer, cleaner alternatives,” said Scobie. The volunteers who work with Scobie receive a gift card in exchange for their work. Programs like these reduce blood-born transmitted diseases and help Ottawa remain safe.

Drug addiction can affect anyone who is exposed to the substance. Although the majority of addicts obtain their drugs illegally, some of them were prescribed these narcotics. People who suffer from chronic pain and other server conditions receive opioids for pain relief from their doctors. These painkillers are affective in terms of pain reduction but consequently leave the users addicted and further their problems.

When most people think of drug addicts they think of people who are unemployed and do not contribute to society. Opioids have changed this stereotype. People of various ages, ethnicities and professions have become addicted to painkillers. Even doctors have been reported as abusing these drugs, making the argument that the problem is the drug not the person.

University graduate Ashley who refused to give her last name in a CBC interview admitted to using opioids while in school. “I started for recreational reasons…” she said. But after using the painkillers she eventually became addicted to them and felt controlled by the drug. Many people share the same story, they use painkillers recreationally to overcome stress and everyday problems but because of the nature of the drug they become addicted and feel isolated from society. After years of abusing oxycodone Ashley is seeking help at Recovery Ottawa. She turned to methadone as a last resort to help herself.

Methadone clinics offer addicts the chance to live an ordinary life. Although they are substituting one opioid for another, methadone is a controlled alternative towards living as an addict. People who receive methadone and avoid using other drugs can maintain a job, restore their health, avoid crime and eventually become completely sober. Methadone is very cheap in comparison to the price of illegal drugs and allows patients to manage their finances while fighting addiction.

Currently the only solution to opioid dependency is weaning yourself down and quitting, stopping cold turkey, or using methadone. The problem presents numerous outcomes most commonly resulting in continuing to abuse drugs and or relapsing. Ottawa is one of the many cities around the world that has been affected by opioid dependency. Prescription painkillers are a major problem and produce more problems in society than solutions.

The correlation between drug abuse and crime is very strong and will continue to rise unless the appropriate measures to reduce the distribution of these drugs are taken. Drug addicts are people who cannot deal with everyday problems on their own. Their addiction has taken over their lives and in turn creates a greater problem for the society they reside in. More solutions need to be implemented and help needs to be given to those affected by opioid dependency.

The Summary:

I received data from Statistics Canada showing the unemployment rates among people aged 25 to 29 by education level, which I transformed in excel and merged with a KML file of provinces to create four heat maps from 2011 to 2012 for university and college-level educations. Some provinces did not release this information for university and are coloured red. This information was important as it showed what level of education leads to employment more. I also received data showing that there had been losses of workers in the job market, which brought some of the legitimacy of that statistic into question.
I also received data from Georgetown University from a study showing what majors have higher unemployment rates, which is also important as it shows what post-secondary pursuits lead to employment more.
I received a statistic from CBC about how many Canadians felt they were overqualified for their job, important to determine who is over-educated and in a part time job.

The graphs/data:

The sources:

CBC article

Georgetown University study

Statistics Canada unemployment across Canada

Statistics Canada labour force change among 15 to 24 year olds

The story:

Over Educated, Under Employed
Stephen Sedgwick-Williams
Word Count: 1921
December 12, 2013
s.sedgwickwilliams@gmail.com

Tyler McDougall goes to work at his local Wal-Mart at the deli counter. He puts on an apron, cleans machines, changes the garbage, cleans tables and counters, cuts meat for customers, seasons chicken and takes temperatures to make sure that nothing has gotten too warm and gone bad.

He also graduated from Algonquin’s interactive multimedia developer program and takes contracts making websites when he can get them.

McDougall is just one of a generation of young people moving into the labour force after post-secondary education, something that was marketed at high-schools as required in order to get a job in the real world.

But like many, he found that what he was taught isn’t necessarily how the world works, knowing how to do a job isn’t the same as getting one and not all degrees are made equal.

“Right out of graduation my co-op hired me for two or three weeks to finish the project we were working on,” said McDougall, sitting in front of a large image showcasing notable works from media and design programs, one of his own works included. “And then I was unemployed for about six months and then through some people I know I ended up doing an interview at this company that does content management, website stuff.”

Tyler worked there for several months, before becoming unemployed once more and seeking out any work he could get.

“I applied at a bunch of retail stuff and got Wal-Mart, and since then I kind of just work at Wal-Mart,” McDougall said. “Every once in a while I pick up a contract for a website here or there.”

Statistically, Tyler is not alone. According to data released by Statistics Canada, in 2012 nation-wide 6.2 per cent of adults aged 25 to 29 with college or trade school education were unemployed, and 5.8 per cent of university educated adults the same age were unemployed. The overall unemployment rate across all levels of education for that age range was 7.4 per cent.

That’s only for 25 to 29-year-olds, the rate is higher for those aged 15 to 24 as stated in a paper released by Statistics Canada, revealing a 14.3 per cent overall unemployment rate for that age range.

With statistics such as these and the growing number of horror stories of educated people who spent thousands of dollars on their degrees, some wonder if post-secondary education is worth less now than in the past.

“I think so,” says McDougall. “I have a lot of friends who are also graduated and one of them works at Tim Hortons, I mean I work at Wal-Mart.”

In Tyler’s opinion, the college diploma and university degree have become the new high-school diploma.

“You need it to get a job,” says McDougall. “But it’s not going to get you a job, you need experience and charisma and all that stuff to get a job.”

But sometimes it’s the lack of experience in areas some wouldn’t consider that can cause an issue for students emerging into the labour force.

How many graduates have gotten good grades, earned their degree and excelled in co-op, only to start sending out resumes to never hear from companies again, or attend an interview and not get the job?

For Joanne McDonald, career services and student activities manager, helping students learn what they need to sell themselves and close the deal is of huge importance.

“We help guide them through the process of looking for work, securing employment,” said McDonald, sitting at a clean meeting table in the Algonquin student employment services office. “We help them with understanding not only how to write a resume and a cover letter for example, but also how to prepare for an interview, some students have never been to what they call a formal interview.”

These skills can be just as important as the ones learned in an actual program and need to be trained the same way.

“You build those skills,” said McDonald. “The same way you would build skills in accounting, or as a paramedic, or as a nurse, or in business, you need to build those skills.

Job search, it doesn’t come naturally to most of us, it does take work and it takes practise.”

Of course, experience never hurts either when trying to get a job in an industry either.

“Experience is always advantageous,” said McDonald. “Whether it’s co-op, whether it’s volunteer work, whether it’s a student who creates an allegiance early on with an association that is in their industry or field and they start to create that network, it’s always to their advantage to be involved in something like that.”

But even with that, make sure that you start early.

From the time a student steps into Algonquin college I start would to recommend that they think about what the labour market looks like for them,” said McDonald. “Now they may be in a three year diploma and three years seems like a long, long way down the road, but it will go by in the blink of an eye.

I would say from the time they set foot in here they should looking for opportunities to be able to network, with their classmates, with their faculty, with employers.”

But even then, there are just some degrees that aren’t made equal to others. According to a study released by Georgetown University centre on education and the workforce in the United States, certain college degrees have much higher unemployment rates than others.

Not only that, but despite university graduates overall having a lower unemployment rate, even some majors there vary wildly in their unemployment rates, some ranking lower than college diplomas in their field.

Some students are aware that not all degrees necessarily lead to jobs afterwards.

Graeme Kent is a graduate of Algonquin’s interactive multimedia developer program and a former classmate of McDougall. He currently works as a part-timer for the college’s information technology services, as a part of the events team setting up equipment for events, recording them and making videos.

“I can really only speak for the technology field,” said Kent. “It’s ever changing, but you gotta look out for which areas are being flooded.”

For some degrees, the issue is that so many people enter into the major that the job market it specializes in gets over saturated, leaving everyone in that field competing against everyone else, while the employers can pick and chose only those best suited to them with the widest skill sets.

“As far as people coming out of high school go,” said Kent. “They flood game development a lot, and if you’re someone who just likes programming, or just likes the graphic design element, you’re going to have to adapt and you’re going to have to learn to cover all of those, you can’t do just one.”

The key, according to Graeme, is to specialize in things others may have overlooked.

“If anything seems way too popular, there might not be too many jobs in it,” said Kent. “You gotta look for things like COBOL programming.

Programmers that work with COBOL, a language used by companies and banks in their databases, are currently retiring from the industry opening jobs in an industry needing workers to fix and maintain necessary infrastructure.

Nick Batten, a former student of biology at the University of Ottawa and a current financial accounting student at Algonquin, also believes that more specialized degrees and diplomas can lead to jobs more often.

“I’d say that people who take a social science or history degree will have a harder time finding a position than someone who takes a degree like engineering, medicine, law, some of the deep sciences,” said Batten. “But even those can have a harder too if they’re too specialized.”

The statistics back up his belief, according to the Georgetown study college diplomas in social science and the arts were both in the top five unemployment rates for recent graduates, along with recreations, the humanities and architecture.

On the opposite side of the scale, diplomas in engineering stood in the middle of the pack, just between life sciences and business graduates and unemployment rates in health were the lowest for recent graduates, tied with education.

The results from graduate degrees were similar, with social sciences and arts degrees again at the top of the unemployment charts, along with architecture, business and, interestingly enough, computers, while health was again the major with the lowest unemployment rates; only 1.9 per cent.

Batten does warn against getting too specialized in your educational pursuits though.

“If somebody’s specializing in a certain kind of biology, like they’re specializing specifically in plant or fish biology, it’s going to be harder in some areas to get positions for that,” said Batten. “You’re not going to be able to become a fish biologist in northern Saskatchewan, I don’t think.”

If you’re going into a more specialized major like that, Batten recommends that you have a job in mind before entering the job market.

“A friend of mine didn’t have a job she wanted to apply for but she went for a very specialized religion-oriented degree at St. Paul’s and now is unable to do anything with it.”

But even if you choose a specialized degree, you may want to pursue a co-op and get experience in the workforce too, which the Georgetown study shows decreases unemployment rates in all majors.

“They have the experience working in the field,” Batten said in regard to students with experience. “They’d already have an established network of contacts and that would play a big part in getting a job after post-secondary education.”

Kent agrees and says that volunteer work can also be a helping factor.

“Take volunteer positions, you always see people posting online, ‘you can’t get work without experience, you can’t get experience without work.’” Kent said. “Yeah you can, it’s called volunteering.”

The situation isn’t perfect though and while Statistics Canada shows unemployment rates among university and college educated individuals between the ages of 25 and 29 are falling, that may not mean that everyone is getting a job.

“Yeah a lot of people probably do get jobs after college,” said McDougall. “But it’s probably not to do with what they went to college for. I mean technically I’m employed, but Wal-Mart’s not what I went to college for.”

A report by Statistics Canada also shows that 6.6 per cent of the labour force aged 15 to 24 left the labour force between 2008 and 2009 and another 1.7 per cent left between 2011 and 2012.

But even then there is some good news, for those aged 25 to 44 Statistics Canada shows that the labour force has broken even, if not grown, and still the unemployment rate between the ages of 25 and 29 has dropped.

For those concerned about the worth of a post-secondary degree Statistics Canada also shows that having a post-secondary education significantly decreases the unemployment rate for Canadians.

In the end, some see things as getting better and encourage students to study what jobs are available.

“I think things are getting better,” said McDonald. “I think, too, new job seekers need to be aware of what’s available in the labour market, and how to tap into that.”

Perhaps the most important thing you can do is make yourself stand out.

“The jobs are there,” said Kent. “You just have to wade your way through everyone else.”