Labour shortage is a worry for small business
CFIB also cites decline in work ethic
Alabour and skills shortage and an eroding work ethic are among the chief concerns for the new head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the advocacy group for small and medium-sized businesses.
Canada’s demographics indicate the country is headed for a labour shortage in many pockets of the country where jobs can’t be filled at times “where there are people on unemployment,” said Dan Kelly, who was named last week as the new president of the lobby group, succeeding longtime president Catherine Swift.
The federation’s members in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador are the most likely to say they’re short of workers, said Kelly, an 18-year veteran at the organization.
“We’re more worried about the shortage of labour than unemployment at the moment,” Kelly said in an interview from Toronto.
Kelly pledged to continue the federation’s focus on changes to the immigration system, temporary foreign worker program and proposed changes to the federal government’s unemployment insurance program.
The government has recently announced changes to the EI system that could force unemployed Canadians to take lower-paying jobs outside their preferred occupations.
Kelly said Canadians shouldn’t have the view they’re above doing some jobs and at the same time look unfavourably on temporary foreign workers or immigrants doing those jobs.
“So who the heck do we get to lay the bricks, to pour the concrete, to work on the farm, to work in the personal care homes?” he asked.
He added that employers need to do their part and step up on wages and benefits, as well as improve working conditions to attract and keep workers.
“But we’ve got to make sure we don’t erode our work ethic to such a degree that we become so delicate as Canadians that we would rather sit on unemployment or stand in the street in protest than actually get to work, make a living and build our economy.”
Kelly said he doesn’t want to discourage students from pursuing a post-secondary education but added that trades workers, like plumbers, electricians and brick layers, are needed and well paid.
Canada’s job-creation machine slowed in May after two big months of employment gains but turned out 7,700 additional jobs — slightly more than expected and enough to keep the unemployment rate unchanged at 7.3 per cent.
The increase was due to the addition of self-employed, government and part-time workers, which offset a decline in full-time employment in the private sector.
“Things domestically seem to be holding together quite well, but small businesses read the papers and listen to the news and what’s going on internationally, that uncertainty internationally, is absolutely among the dampening of optimism among small and medium-sized companies,” Kelly said.