Good news this month, but Canada’s Pavlovian response to one million job vacancies remains – monthly job number commentary by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce

(OTTAWA) – March 11, 2022 – The Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Senior Director of Workforce Strategies and Inclusive Growth, Leah Nord, issued the following statement today on the state of Canada’s labour market.

“Today’s job numbers point to the impact of easing restrictions in the industries most impacted by COVID-19, namely food services and accommodation, and the entertainment sectors. This is a positive sign for these beleaguered sectors, but the broader, fundamental problem persists. 

Another month of jobs data and still no closer to answers to the structural, near-million job vacancies in Canada. Canadians will be having the same conversation over and over, month after month, unless something fundamentally changes. We need to stop the Pavlovian response of seeing a million job vacancies before shrugging our shoulders and going back to what we were doing before.

Nearly one million job openings are here to stay unless Canada does something profoundly different. Businesses desperately need talent and the general policy response has been underwhelming. Without a silver bullet remedy, the tough work is politically unappealing.

There is no easy fix, because Canada urgently needs a comprehensive strategy that looks at immigration, re-skilling and up-skilling, new training approaches, and talent pipeline management systems all working together. This issue is at the bedrock of our economic well-being, but we can’t seem to get past politics to get to policy that matters.”

About the Canadian Chamber of Commerce — The Future of Business Success

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is Canada’s largest and most activated business network — representing 450 chambers of commerce and boards of trade and more than 200,000 businesses of all sizes, from all sectors of the economy and from every part of the country — to create the conditions for our collective success. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is the undisputed champion and catalyst for the future of business success. From working with government on economy-friendly policy to providing services that inform commerce and enable trade, we give each of our members more of what they need to succeed: insight into markets, competitors and trends, influence over the decisions and policies that drive business success and impact on business and economic performance. 

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Contact
Phil Taylor
Canadian Chamber of Commerce
E-mail: ptaylor@chamber.ca (fastest response time)