Help wanted. Urgently hiring. A shift in the employment landscape has workplaces scrambling to fill vacant positions. The problem – is a lack of applicants. Employers say that despite aggressive recruiting strategies they just aren’t getting enough resumes. “I don’t think it’s just a northern Ontario problem. We have offices all across Ontario and it’s the same kind of story in that there’s more positions than people to fill them.” Tonya Eckensviller is an employment coach with Agilec in Burk’s Falls and says a multitude of factors stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the makeup of Ontario’s workforce. “The government was telling us that there was going to be a labor shortage at some point, and I think part of it is the pandemic. It sped up that labor shortage by a good chunk of years. None of us were prepared for it.” Lockdowns and work from home orders have had a domino effect on a multitude of issues that prompted a mass exodus from the labor market. While most business sectors struggled during the pandemic it fueled a white-hot real estate market. For Northern Ontario that meant an influx of Southern Ontario residents retiring sooner than expected and leaving behind gaps in employment that remain unfilled. Coldwell Banker realtor Sarah Langdon says the writing was on the wall as more and more people left the workforce in search of an improved quality of life. “Many people were taking an early retirement because they realized the amount of money they could make off their home in the city and move up north and be mortgage free.” Retirees aren’t the only demographic to exit the workplace in droves. As schools closed or implemented strict quarantine rules parents who normally worked fulltime jobs were forced to stay home with their kids. Many slashed their work schedule to part time hours or didn’t return to work at all. And now that we’re deep in the weeds of a labour shortage with an economic recession looming both the federal and provincial governments are introducing extensive job training programs that are low cost or even free. As they enter their second term in Queen’s Park, Premier Doug Ford’s government is taking an “all hands on deck” approach to getting people back to work. In a statement to 705blackfly.com, Monte McNaughton, Ontario Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, says giving workers a leg up during training is key to replenishing the depleted labour market with qualified workers. “To help employers find and train the skilled workers needed to compete in a 21st-century economy, we launched the $200 million Skills Development Fund. This initiative has helped thousands of businesses develop paid training and job placement programs that also cover participant costs such as transit passes, childcare, and buying someone’s first pair of safety boots.” Citing a nationwide labour shortage, provincial immigration ministers from Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are calling on Sean Fraser, Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship, to allow their provinces to select more immigrants “with the skills they need most”.
And the skills needed most in Northern Ontario appear to be in the medical field and skilled trades. Tonya says that there is a severe shortage in personal support workers which is largely attributed to the gruelling nature of the hours and fewer people entering the field. There’s also a gap in construction with over 100,000 construction jobs to be filled by 2030 and not enough people entering the trades. “Last week I was talking to a construction company,” Tonya says. “He was like, “I don’t have flaggers. Usually, I get an influx after high school. I didn’t get it this year.” A Statistics Canada report released in July 2022 indicated that employers are having difficulty filling vacant positions and the trend is expected to last until at least October. 36.9% of businesses say they are encountering difficulty recruiting including:
Construction: 49.5% Manufacturing: 47.4% Accommodation and food services: 46.3%
The report adds that in addition to challenges in recruiting, retaining skilled workers will remain an obstacle. A mismatch between the offered wage associated with vacancies and the reservation wage – the minimum hourly wage seekers are willing to accept for a position – may be contributing to the elevated job vacancies in certain sectors. In some sectors the offered wage surpassed the reservation wage which may be one of the factors contributing to the labour shortage. Tonya adds that smaller companies in need of skilled trades are experiencing even bigger challenges because apprenticeships can take 3-5 years to complete. With a ratio of 1 apprentice to 1 journey person, that could add up to not hiring partially trained workers. And while employers may have to adjust ideals and onboard partially skilled workers, she points out that part of the solution lies with workers making themselves more employable by taking advantage of government sponsored training programs. To ease the burden on small businesses, Minister McNoughton tells us the province is investing billions into training programs. “Across Ontario, more than 375,000 jobs are currently going unfilled. This historic labour shortage is holding back our economy and raising costs for families. We recently launched Better Jobs Ontario, which provides up to $28,000 for tuition and living expenses to anyone who wants to learn the skills they need to start an in-demand meaningful career, include those who’ve recently lost a job, young people looking for a change of direction, and people on social assistance.” Tonya says there’s no cookie cutter solution to getting people gainfully employed and businesses fully staffed again but persistence combined with innovative thinking is key. “It’s not going to be a quick fix. We’re in this together and the old way that we used to do things isn’t working and I don’t think it’s going to work any time soon.”
For more information on training and development programs: Agilec (Burk’s Falls) www.agilec.ca (705) 382-6086
