Based on Devin Ross' article, there is a high amount of inequality in employment of those in the creative sector and one reason is gentrification. We even see this in the Kitchener/Waterloo Region, how houses are being turned into condos and companies. So the question is where do those people that lived there go to? Having this as an issue, people in the creative class find it hard to get jobs that are in their close proximity; the good jobs are in expensive places. Even if they may afford the housing, the standard of living in general will be costly.
According to Florida and Martin (2009), they talk on how the Ontario government is trying to make ways in which there will be economic transformation in the lives of the creatives through transforming short term work to long term and making their skills in demand by the industry.
In my opinion, as of now, those in the tech industry are in great demand, especially in Canada. And though it may be economically difficult, they have more leeway in creating their own company.
Do you think engineers are more susceptible to gaining employment? Do you think engineers in Canada are more likely to stay here or move to America because of better opportunities? Is the Ontarian government actually impacting change in all the sectors?
Devin Ross https://studybreaks.com/wpcontent/cache/supercache/studybreaks.com/2017/02/15/creative-class//index.html.gz
Florida (2003) http://creativeclass.com/rfcgdb/articles/4%20Cities%20and%20the%20Creative%20Class.pdf
Florida & Martin (2009) http://martinprosperity.org/media/pdfs/MPI%20Ontario%20Report%202009%20v3.pdf
The Florida article, and its social science focused analysis is interesting. It's difficult to rebut and makes much sense in my mind. Certainly in the current period technical resources, and resources that have a good blend of business savvy and technology aptitude are going to find it easier to find jobs. The ability to draw new skilled talent to urban centres, due to the political climate and diverse population I think warrants more research...but certainly seems to be playing out if you look around to where these technology hubs are establishing themselves.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I see the lack of opportunities for jobs as one of the main risks of the industry that has been combatted thus far in the tech industries by the continuous adaptation to new technologies and ways of conducting business. While it does present a great degree of inequality, especially for those starting out in the industry, it is important to acknowledge that there is not a significant amount of stability in any industry for newcomers, especially in tech. Gentrification is certainly a significant influencer of the struggle these engineers and tech workers are dealing with, but to me its seems as though it is just another kind of societal trend that is affecting cities in general. I think that engineers are likely to get accustomed to the industry here, or wherever they are from, and then move on to larger sectors (Silicon Valley and Alley) once they have developed more interest and expertise. The Ontario governments appears to be accommodating this in regards to support of incubators that allow for shallow development of businesses that develop to a point where they are big enough to be sold or moved elsewhere. It is working in cooperation with the larger system, while lightly establishing support of the bigger corporations that decide to move into spaces around our area.
ReplyDelete