Skilled Workers: Manufacturing

Desperate Shortage Dept: How can manufacturing layoffs and an unemployment rate of more than 8 per cent in six provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, be reconciled with this desperate shortage? As the CCC report makes clear, rather than an overall shortage of workers, the real problem is a skills crisis. The retraining of laid-off workers from shrinking industries, such as manufacturing, to work in fast-growing sectors is crucial to resolving this skills crisis, according to Globe and Mail. Given the shortage of skilled workers, and the pending retirement of thousands more across the country, Canadian businesses and governments should view every person as potential contributor to the work force. With that in mind, improving immigrant integration services should be a high priority. Many immigrants gain entry to Canada on the basis of needed skills yet languish in low-skill jobs due in part to the lack of national standards for assessing qualifications and and earlier this month, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce issued a report, The Top 10 Barriers to Competitiveness, which highlighted a desperate labour shortage as the No. 1 obstacle to growth of Canadian companies. A more highly skilled work force will produce value-added goods and services and new technologies that can maximize productivity and improve the quality of life for all Canadians, the report stresses in its key theme. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.