The London Economic Development Corp's assessment of London 's labour needs has been bolstered by University of Western Ontario research. John Kime, LECD president and chief executive said yesterday.
An independent study by two University of Western Ontario sociology professors concludes Canada may face a serious skilled labour shortage in coming years and must find innovative ways to combat the shortage, it said.
That is exactly what the LECD has done, said Kime, as it seeks to improve worker training and retraining here, keep older workers on the job and go overseas to find skilled workers. "It endorses the idea that something has to be done, somebody has to be proactive in dealing with this workforce issue," said Kime. "I think it is very supportive of our conclusion" Kime said.
The study concludes that aging of Canada 's population is only one of several factors that could lead to serious skilled labour shortages in coming years. Other factors, such as working conditions and length of training and education, could be just as important, if not more so.
"A variety of factors influence the availability of skills shortage and it has to be addressed to keep our economy vibrant," Kime said.
"We have to do different things to have skills available to local industry." As a result, both employers and policy-makers have to look beyond demographics to devise policies that will let fend off a widespread scarcity of skilled workers, the report says.
"Workforce aging is not the only, nor necessarily the most significant, determined of skill shortages," said Julie Ann McMullin, Western professor and co-author of the report published recently by Canadian Policy Research Networks, an Ottawa-based think-tank. "Other factors will contribute very much to potential labour shortages."
While some sectors might have trouble finding qualified employees, the study concludes it is inappropriate to say a general skills crisis is looming because of age. "It does seem likely that there will be 'hot spots' of acute skill shortages, localized in terms of geography and industry or occupation," the study says.
Southwestern Ontario is such a spot, adds Kime, since growth in manufacturing has tapped out the skilled labour pool. Slower population growth than other Ontario cities, a low unemployment rate of 4.7% and an inability to attract and retain workers has threatened London businesses.
LECD's workforce development strategy says London must increase immigration of skilled workers, retrain its unemployed and underemployed and keep older, skilled workers on the job.
Of all the initiatives, the plan to get workers from overseas - the targeted immigration project - is the most ambitious. LECD staff will be in the Philippines by the end of next month to help make it happen. The aim is to have as many as 10 workers in London by mid-2005 as part of a pilot project.
The authors of the Western study looked at four sectors in Ontario : nursing, information technology, skilled manufacturing trades and biotechnology. The report notes nursing occupations, for example, are among the most likely to experience high cumulative retirement rates during the next decade even though nurses, as a group, are not among the oldest workers. Much of the churn - and inability to recruit younger workers - can be attributed to the demands of the job: long hours, stress and shifts.
By contrast, the information technology sector has a young demographic profile, which may make recruiting harder as the population ages. That suggests IT employers will need to offer incentives, such as better wages, to attract new workers.
"Even in a very young workforce, there can still be skill shortages that aren't related to aging," McMullin said. "One of the issues is making these jobs attractive to all sorts of different groups of workers."
Census data from Statistics Canada confirm the country's average age is rising rapidly. Several groups - business, labour and government - have warned the country will suffer a widespread shortage of skilled workers as a result.
De Bono, Norman. (September 27, 2004). Western study supports skill plan: LECD.
London Free Press and Canadian Press.
