The future may not be friendly for
Canada. Environmentalists have already predicted surging prices associated with
climate change for North America. And in the latest troublesome sign, Canada
can add a shortage of skilled labour as an oncoming economic challenge in the
future according to Employment Minister Jason Kenney. During a recent summit
held in Toronto, Mr. Kenney said, “It’s necessary that an informed national
discussion take place about the condition of Canada’s labour market, in order
to address future skill gaps.” Mr. Kenney acknowledged that there is an
inadequacy in information and that the Employment Ministry must do a better job
of gaining sufficient information regarding employment by both region and
industry.
What we are seeing is not necessarily a
market-wide issue. There is, rather, a shortage pending in specific sectors.
The mining & petroleum sector, for instance, is a prime example of an industry
that faces a serious shortage of skilled labour over the next decade. The
construction business is also in such a predicament. Skills Canada is
predicting that an estimated one million skilled laborers will be required by
the year 2020. “We know we have these huge investments and opportunities,
particularly in a huge swath of northern Canada, through the massive
multibillion-dollar investments in the extractive industries that will require
tens if not hundreds of thousands of skilled workers who are not currently
available,” said Mr. Kenney.
On a global scale, the labour market is
seen as a competition. Nations and various markets are looking for the best of
the best. Skilled workers are often hard to find and shortages for skilled labour
is often overlooked. Demand for skilled labour in Canada is absolutely
essential as it is the main component involved in driving the economy of the
nation forward, especially at a time when shifting demographics, globalization
and advancing technologies are world-wide phenomenons. A two-year-old report
outlined by McKinsey Global Institute predicted that by 2020 the global economy
could see around 90 million more low-skilled laborers needed by employers. Mr.
Stephen Cryne of the Canadian Employee Relocation Council stressed the vitality
of Canadian companies reaching out to both the international labor market and
also laborers across the nation. “How do we get companies to tap into workers
across from Canada? How do we get (workers) to move from areas with pockets of
high unemployment?”
If within the nation alone, what we will
notice is that there are 13 different apprenticeship programs with specific
rules and requirements. “Greater harmonization of that regime would make it
easier for young apprentices to complete their training and give them the
mobility to go where the jobs are,” said Mr. Kenney. We need to de-stigmatize
the current discourse of the job-field such that young workers can be
encouraged to enter skilled vocations. Canada is already lagging behind the
U.K. and Germany in this regard as the apprenticeship programs there are considered
to be much better. In other European nations, around two-thirds of young high
school students at the age of 16 enroll in paid internship programs and
graduate at the age of 19 without the burden of debt.
In Canada, we are operating under
somewhat of a paradox. On one hand, we are amongst the most educated nations in
the developed world. But on the other hand, we have a youth unemployment rate
of 13.4%, which is nearly twice the general unemployment rate. Needless to say,
this is unacceptable.
Disclaimer: This article was posted with the permission
of a third-party contributor and the opinions contained therein do not
necessarily reflect those of Smallcappower. Smallcappower does not endorse
any investment advice provided by these third-party contributors.
Please consult your investment advisor before
making any investment decisions. Ubika Corporation and its divisions Smallcappower,
Ubika Communication and Ubika Research are not registered with any financial or
securities regulatory authority in Ontario or Canada, and do not provide
nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to any visitor of
this site or readers of any content on this site. – See more at: http://www.smallcappower.com/posts/small-cap-power-disclosure
