All Skills Aren’t Created Equal

In the last issue we asked several job shop owners about the challenges facing their businesses that worry them the most. In almost every case, the answer was the same: skilled labour shortages.

The revelation was not only unsurprising, it was expected.

This broken-record-like revelation has been a clarion call from the manufacturing sector ever since Henry Ford first went looking for people to work on his moving assembly line, a mere 104 years ago.

Here in the present, the national unemployment rate has been hovering between 6.5 and 7.5 per cent for the past five years. Unfortunately, many of the jobs that are keeping this number low are in the service industry, a wide, varying, and broadly defined jobs sector.

While it is fact these service sector jobs have helped keep the economy running smoothly over the past few years, not all service jobs are created equal. High-paying IT support positions, for example, are creating a class of young workers that have discretionary income for the first time in their lives, enabling them to buy homes, travel, and put money back into the economy.

Unfortunately, there is another class of service jobs being created at an ever-increasing pace for which the only learned, and therefore transferable, skill involves making a mighty fine Midnight Mint Mocha Frappuccino®.

The latest numbers for the Canadian manufacturing sector show that 13,000 jobs were lost in June, bringing the yearly total to more than 30,000 jobs. However, June’s total employment went up by more than 45,000 jobs. This means there are jobs being filled, just not in the manufacturing sector. South of the border during the same period, 300,000 manufacturing jobs were filled. Almost by default, this should cause some trickle-down employment in this country. But it may take some time.

A recent study conducted by the Ontario Skilled Trades Alliance reported that 41 per cent of the surveyed employers would currently hire more people if they had the skills they were looking for.

This again proves there are jobs waiting for workers to fill them. But where is the remedy?

Well, it likely will need to start at the local level and progress from there. Just like how charities work, every little bit helps.

A recent example is union giant, Unifor’s gift (from Local 444) of $75,000 to St. Clair College to help upgrade the school’s trade programs.

Industry, government, educational institutions, unions, and employees all have a stake in this game, and it’s time to go all in.