Running on Empty: A Decade of Hunger in Ontario

The overwhelming challenges generated by the 2008 global recession may have officially ended in the summer of 2009, but the after-effects continued to create severe economic hardships for Ontarians through 2010. The most recent HungerCount data indicates that the number of people turning to food banks in 2010 was 88,000 per month higher than in 2008. While the recent recession was not nearly as severe as the one in 1990-91, the impacts have been pervasive. Chart 1 shows that total employment in Ontario fell abruptly by 2.5 percent in 2009 and then recovered to the pre-recession level in 2010. But the quality of the new jobs was poor. Many were in low-wage service industries; and many people who found employment were self-employed or working part-time or in contract or casual work. Overall, people with jobs in 2010 were working fewer hours per week (36) than they did in the years before the recession hit (37.2).

Publication Date: 
2011