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Aboriginal People in Manitoba 2000 Chapter 6 : Labour and Income

On many socio-economic variables, Metis people rank somewhere between the mainstream population and First Nations. Labour market participation is one variable where the Metis resemble non-Aboriginal more than First Nations people. In Manitoba as a whole, the labour market participation rate for adults over the age of 15 years was 66.4% at the time of the 1996 Census. The Metis rate was 65.4%, while among registered Indians the participation rate was 46.9%. Metis youth and adults in Manitoba participate in the labour market in numbers not substantially different from non-Aboriginal people (67.7%).¹¹

However, the Metis unemployment rate in 1996 was 19.7%, approximately three times the non-Aboriginal unemployment rate of 6.4%. As a result only 52.5% of the adult Metis population was actually employed or self-employed at the time of the Census, compared to 63.3% of the non-Aboriginal population. The high unemployment rate does not appear to discourage this group from seeking to participate in the labour market – there is little evidence of the “discouraged worker” among Metis.¹²

In southern Manitoba outside Winnipeg, the Metis participation rate actually appears to exceed the non-Aboriginal rate: 68.1% versus 67.7%. But the Metis unemployment rate was again more than three times the non-Aboriginal rate: 17% versus 5.1%. The story is similar in Winnipeg, where the participation rate is a little lower and the unemployment rate a little higher: 66% and 20.4% for Metis aged 15+. For Metis women in particular, the unemployment rate is significantly higher inside Winnipeg than outside.

The employment situation for the Metis is worse in the north. Here only 59.1% of Metis youth and adults participate in the labour market, of whom fully 23.4% were unemployed in 1996. This is compared to 73.4% and 5.9% for non-Aboriginal people, and 46.7% and 29.9% for Status Indians. In northern Manitoba, there is more similarity between Status and Metis labour market patterns than there is in the south or in Winnipeg.

As we have seen, of the minority of Metis people who reside in the north (19%) about half are in small communities, often adjacent to First Nations. These communities share with their neighbours the same structural economic problem: the lack of an economic base sufficient to employ more than a minority of the potential labour market force. The employment rate for Metis aged 15+ in Northern Manitoba is 45.2%, compared to 69.1% for non-Aboriginal people and 32.7% for registered Indians.

Metis women are less likely to participate in the labour market than are men: 57.7% versus 73.2%. The 15% differential between male and female rates is similar to the differential for non-Aboriginal people (61% vs. 75%) and for Status Indians (40% vs. 54%). However, Metis women who did participate in the labour market reported considerably lower unemployment in 1996 than did Metis men: 16.2% vs. 22.5%.

For the Metis, as for other groups, education is a powerful determinant of labour market participation and employment/self-employment rates. A Manitoba literacy survey undertaken by the Metis National Council found that, of high school graduates with or without post-secondary education, between 55% and 70% were employed at the time of the survey, and 70% to 80% were labour market participants. The majority of those not in the labour market indicated they were attending school.

By contrast, of those with Grade 9-11, about 30% were employed and 64% participated; thus, their unemployment rate exceeded 50%. Of those with less than Grade 9, only about 16% were employed and 32% participated, though it must be noted out that a large number in this group were retired.¹³