The Canada Emergency Response Benefit helped a significant number of Canadians get better jobs, mainly because it gave them the financial means toThe study, conducted jointly by two think tanks, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Future Skills Centre, suggests the CERB program aided workers during the pandemic
“We found that the program disproportionately played a key role for a large number of users to pivot to better employment,” said Katherine Scott, a senior researcher at the CCPA and a co-author of the study’s report. “The study illustrated that a large number of people, with a modicum of financial security, turned their attention to whether they were happy in their jobs.”
The survey also found that roughly 80 per cent of CERB recipients continued looking for work while receiving the benefit. Of those, 66 per cent said CERB had allowed them to land new positions, and given them time to look for the right jobs, not just the first that came along. improving their skills prior to CERB, it was the benefit that gave them the time and money to execute their plans.
CERB, and other pandemic relief programs, such as the Canada Wage Subsidy, have been mired in controversy because of the broad, often confusing qualification criteria the government used to evaluate who was eligible. This resulted in a substantial number of people receiving money to which they were not entitled.
For example, of the 41 per cent of respondents who ended up in new careers, close to half said those jobs better matched their skills than their old ones, and were more satisfying.