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1.1 Estimated Levels of Adjustment, 1995

The following table estimates the furthest clients had advanced in TAGS/HRDC programming by October, 1995. Clients are advanced as far as possible, i.e., if they were in both training and counselling, they are recorded at the more advanced training stage.

Level of Adjustment3	Newfoundland	Nova Scotia	All Regions
Inactive	20%	7%	17%
Counselling	34	17	30
Training	13	11	13
Working with TAGS Support	2	7	3
Worked in 1995 in Fish Harvesting	8	13	9
Worked in 1995 in Fish Processing	9	15	10
Worked in 1995 in Construction	4	2	3
Worked in 1995 - Other Work	11	28	15
Total	100%	100%	100%
N	2028	493	2709

The table shows that just under half of all TAGS clients were either inactive ( not employed and not participating in any TAGS/HRDC adjustment program) or were not working and had received counselling and nothing else. 13 percent were active in TAGS/HRDC training programs, and 3 percent were involved in TAGS/HRDC supported employment activities. The table indicates that TAGS clients in Nova Scotia were more active in a wider range of employment activities than those in Newfoundland.

1.2 Principal Characteristics of TAGS/HRDC Clients

The following table provides a profile of TAGS/HRDC clients at the end of 1995.

Table 2: Profile of TAGS/HRDC Clients 1995

1.2.1 Benefit Profile Of TAGS/HRDC Clients

• Median Eligible Weekly Benefit Rate for all TAGS/HRDC clients is $276;

• Median duration of benefit period is 245 weeks (4.7 years);

• 39,805 clients are eligible for TAGS benefits (December 1995):

  • eligibility for 3,518 clients expired December 31, 1994 (the "Northern Cod Adjustment and Recovery Program rollovers");

  • as Table 3 shows, some clients lose their eligibility each year, but the majority of clients will be eligible until the last year of the program.

  1.2.2 Clients with Lower TAGS Benefit Rates

  • 30 percent of TAGS clients have eligible benefit rates lower than $225:

  • 90 percent of those with lower eligible benefit rates are plant workers;

  • while 70 percent of TAGS clients are in Newfoundland, only 62 percent with lower benefit rates are from Newfoundland;

  • Quebec and New Brunswick clients are more likely to have lower benefit rates.

• Plant workers have a lower eligible benefit rate:
  • plant workers median is $238, SEC fishers $372, non-SEC fishers $361.

1.2.3 Income History of Clients

• TAGS benefits have approximated pre-closure incomes of clients:

  • for the four years prior to closure (1988-91) median income of TAGS clients was $14,668;

  • for the first year of NCARP/AGAP (Atlantic Groundfish Adjustment Program) (1992) median income of TAGS clients was $16,609;

  • for the first full year of TAGS (1995) the estimated median income of TAGS clients is $14,721.

• Plant workers wages were about double net fishing income of fishers for the four years prior to closure (1988-1991)

  • median earnings from wages for plant workers was $7,236, while for fishers the median net fishing income revenues minus expenditures were $3,223.

• The first group of clients exiting TAGS at the end of 1994 (the "NCARP rollovers") have experienced a drop in income, as illustrated in the following figure.

Figure 1:

Source: 1968 to 1994 - T1 Income tax data; 1995 - survey data

1.2.4 History of Clients with Social Assistance

• TAGS clients had a very low incidence of social assistance claims prior to closure of groundfish fishery: 3 percent of clients had a claim in 1992.⁵

• Of the 3,518 TAGS/HRDC clients who exited TAGS at the end of 1994, 12 percent drew social assistance during 1995.

1.2.5 UI History of TAGS/HRDC Clients

• 98 percent of all TAGS/HRDC clients have had at least one claim between 1988 and 1994. The median number of claims over that period was 7:

  • the median number of claims is similar for both Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

• fishers' median UI benefits were about 50 percent higher than plant workers for the four years prior to closure (1988-1991):

  • median UI benefits for plant workers was $5,532, fishers $8,126;

  • median UI benefits collected by Newfoundland plant workers was $5,963, and by fishers $8,455;

  • median UI benefits collected by Nova Scotia plant workers was $3,081, and by fishers $6,552.

1.2.6 Factors That Constrain Adjustment

• 96 percent of TAGS/HRDC clients live in households with others:

  • 40 percent of TAGS/HRDC clients who live with others indicated that during counselling sessions counsellors focused on the client's individual needs alone and did not mention family concerns;

  • 74 percent of clients live with at least one other person who contributes financially to the household;

  • women clients are 20 percent more likely to live with someone else who contributes financially to the household.

• 84 percent own their own homes:

  • 47 percent pay less than $400 a month in mortgage/rent and utilities.

• 54 percent of TAGS/HRDC clients live with children under 18 :

  • 35 percent live with children under 12;

  • 13 percent live with children under 5.

1.2.7 Attitudes Towards Mobility

1.2.8 TAGS and Non-Participant Comparisons

• The Non-participant group are Unemployment Insurance claimants who closely resemble TAGS/HRDC clients.⁶

• Non-participants are a very close match to TAGS/HRDC clients except that the non-participants are better educated (42 percent have not graduated from high school compared with 73 percent of TAGS clients). They are a closer match than the whole U.I. claimant population, in which about 30 percent have not graduated from high school.

• TAGS clients indicate that they have more barriers to working than do non-participants

• TAGS/HRDC clients attribute much higher importance than non-participants to the following constraints on adjustment:

  • lack of jobs in local area (60 percent vs. 8 percent);

  • having to move to find work (41 percent vs. 2 percent);

  • personal debt (22 percent vs. 8 percent);

  • difficulties in getting needed training (31 percent vs. 5 percent);

  • inadequate education levels (27 percent vs. 6 percent).

Footnotes

3	Sources: Counselling: TAGS/HRDC Survey Training: Newfoundland - CECs; other provinces - Phase I & II data Working with TAGS Support: Newfoundland - CECs; other provinces - CJS Phase I & II UI Claims: TAGS pay and UI data.
4	Note that a high percent of clients in NB, PEI and to a lesser extent Quebec, mean that the overall percentage is higher than that for NF and NS.
5	This information is only available for 1992 because this is the first year that Social Assistance benefits were included in T1 forms.
6	The sample frame chosen is that of individuals who are part of HRDC's research sample, had a U.I. claim in 1994, live in a rural area, and the National Occupation Code (NOC) classification of the occupation on which their claim was based did not require a post-secondary education. The sample was matched to TAGS clients on the basis of province, gender and age categories.