Abstract
Natural disasters can have significant impacts on the workforce in affected regions. There are often widespread disruptions to labour supply due to displacement of people from their jobs, either by disrupting their place of work or by disrupting a worker’s ability to attend work. This research aims to investigate the patterns of impact that disasters have on the workforce and the employment and livelihood issues that emerge during post-disaster recovery. By using comparative case study approach, this research compares recent disaster events, including the June 2013 Southern Alberta floods in Canada, the 2010 and 2011 Queensland floods in Australia, the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand, the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami and the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. It was found that common disaster effects on displaced workers included job and worker displacement, loss of income, disruptions to workers’ livelihoods and creation of additional participation barriers, particularly for females, youth and individuals with lower skill sets. Comparison of different disaster events also revealed insights into how disasters can change the local labour market structure post-disaster. General economic conditions, sectoral structure as well as business and individual coping mechanisms all influence livelihood outcomes for the affected workers. As the post-disaster recovery progresses in Queensland (Australia), Canterbury (New Zealand) and Tohoku (Japan), coordination of employment and livelihood initiatives with housing and other welfare policies is critical for ensuring that job opportunities are available to everyone, especially those with disadvantage.
This chapter is based on a Resilient Organisations report prepared for APEC Natural Disasters Workforce Project “Building natural disaster response capacity: Sound workforce strategies for recovery and reconstruction in APEC economies” published in November 2013. The APEC Natural Disasters Workforce Project Office has granted consent for using materials in the report for publications.
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Acknowledgement
This research was funded by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat (Project: Building Natural Disaster Response Capacity – Sound Workforce Strategies for Recovery and Reconstruction; Project Number, HRD 01/2012A). Authors would like to thank the APEC Natural Disasters Workforce Project Office and Nick Mowbray and William La of the Australian Government Department of Employment for providing support and many officials from the Governments in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and China for assisting with the collection of case study data.
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Chang-Richards, A., Seville, E., Wilkinson, S., Walker, B. (2019). Effects of Disasters on Displaced Workers. In: Asgary, A. (eds) Resettlement Challenges for Displaced Populations and Refugees. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92498-4_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92498-4_14
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