The CDP team is working hard to draft our custom data orders for the National Household Survey and other surveys. The Urban Poverty Tables are always a key component of our order. In the past, we have requested poverty data by employment status and age. This year we would like to review past practice and open up a conversation about the most useful measure of working poverty to include. Several different definitions of working poverty have been used in recent years, including John Stapleton’s work for the Metcalf Foundation in Toronto. We would like to ask you for your thoughts on the pros and cons of different approaches and the relative importance of selecting a single measure.

If you or a member of your consortium would like to participate in a conference call some time in October or November, please us know. We will be preparing a short backgrounder in advance and hope to invite other researchers as well to help inform the conversation. The CDP team will gather input and prepare a recommendation for the data group / leads to consider. We are happy to take written feedback as well.

Contact information: Katherine Scott, scott@ccsd.ca

Resources:

CCSD (2007), Employment and Education: Urban Poverty in Canada 2000. www.ccsd.ca/pubs/2007/upp/employment_education.pdf )

Stapleton, Murphy and Xing (2012), The “Working Poor” in the Toronto Region: Who they are, where they live, and how trends are changing. http://metcalffoundation.com/publications-resources/view/the-working-po…

Fleury and Fortin (2006), When Working is not enough to Escape Poverty: An Analysis of Canada's Working Poor. Human Resources and Social Development Canada (SP-630-06-06F). http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2008/hrsdc-rhdsc/HS28-…