I went to my friend’s birthday party the other day and had an interesting conversation with a few folks. The guys were talking, with pride, about how they haven’t worked in months and how excited they are to be getting EI. It’s a trend that I’ve been noticing more and more over the last year or so — I’d say the vast majority of my friends (that aren’t in school) don’t work, or only work very part time hours or on a contract basis. I only know two guys who work regular 9-5 jobs, and one of them just quit to take the summer off.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing. I’m pretty much in the same boat — I haven’t worked a regular day job in about six months and have no plans to get one anytime soon. I make most of my income doing freelance work, which is great. And come to think of it, most of my friends are involved in creative industries — they freelance, they’re club promoters, dj’s, artists, musicians, that sort of thing. So maybe it’s just the group of people I hang out with. But still, there are an awful lot of people that don’t work at all – freelance or otherwise. I can’t help but wonder how much of this has to do with the economy. But the EI comment really did surprise me. I don’t know many people who are actually collecting EI, so that’s new. I never really thought of kids in their 20′s as being an EI market. But maybe that’s been changing?
