Yes, that’s true. May sound to be untrue but it is really a fact.
Canadians without jobs, businesses face skills shortage—Canadian businesses say they are experiencing a shortage of low-skilled workers in the nation. And this has eventually led to hiring of nearly 338,000 temporary foreigners to work in Canada in the year 2012.
This is despite the fact that the number of unemployed Canadians is growing. As per the recent figures, there are nearly 1.33 million unemployed Canadians struggling to find jobs. Canada has a large number laid-off welders waiting to get employed in Ontario.
On the other hand, employers are finding it hard to get workers with requisite skills for the vacant job positions.
“Who is to be blamed for such a scenario”(skills shortage versus skills mismatch)is a question that pops in many minds?
Skills shortage or skills mismatch?—Well, the reason why a significantly high percentage of high-skilled jobs in Canada are remaining unfilled even as young university graduates seem to have no option but to keep waiting for getting employment seems to be a skills mismatch. Yes. At least this is true in some instances.
The gap between skills needed by employers in Canada and the skills possessed by job seekers is widening. And this is leading to not just increased rate of joblessness in Canada but also a skills shortage for available jobs in Canada(especially low-skilled Canada jobs).
Skills crisis overblown—Canada does have shortage of skills, but, is the skills shortage really pressing? A common version is that the issue is being blown out of proportion by employers in the nation.
At least that’s what several labor groups in Canada feel. And the reason cited by labor groups for this ‘skills shortage’ being claimed by employers is to control wages as well as training expenses. It may be worth mentioned that Canada government’s Canada Job Program has been launched for offering a special grant for training incentives to employers.
The reason behind skills mismatch can be attributed to the shrink in the number of Canadians in their prime years of earnings as young Canadians are studying longer in schools.
Ageing Canadians are getting glued to the employment market longer.
However, the point worth notable is that between the year 2011 and 2020, the labor market of Canada is headed for a balance keeping in view the estimates that number of new job seekers and new jobs in Canada will be 6.3 million and 6.5 million respectively.