People get ready, cause there’s jobs a comin’

People get ready, cause there’s jobs a comin’

Community Futures of the Pacific Northwest has released a report that points to a growing gap in the skills needed by employers and those currently held by those looking for work.

The Gateway Skills Initiative report findings were shared with the Daily News who revealed them with a front page story.

WORKERS URGED: GET SKILLS FOR COMING JOBS BONANZA
Experts expect city will have more jobs than local workers within a few years
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Pages one and two

A new report claims that not only does the North Coast labour market not have enough people to fill the jobs expected in the next several years, but those in the labour force lack the skills necessary to fill those positions.

Community Futures of the Pacific Northwest released its report Pacific Northwest Gateway Skills Initiative Inventory of Workforce Skills last week.

Maynard Angus, general manager of Community Futures of the Pacific Northwest, said there will be gaps in available employees in all sectors and there will be skill shortages in all areas – trades, retail, tourism.

That’s what jumps out the most from this report,” said Angus.

“Yesterday, there were a lot of people looking for work and not a lot of job opportunities. Today, there is a lack of skilled labourers to fill a lot of jobs.

“It has kind of reversed itself – there are a lot of jobs but we’re requiring a skilled labour force.”
The report is concrete and only looks at those jobs that the researchers were able to verify would exist in the future - such jobs associated with the container port, new community gaming centre and developments on Ridley Island. Multipliers were not used to calculate additional indirect or induced jobs that might be created, nor does the report include construction jobs.

“The information in the report is based on information provided by companies and industry, so that is what we have gone on, keeping it in perspective. We didn’t use indirect numbers or induced numbers, it is specific to direct jobs that will be created,” said Angus.

According to the report, there will be gaps in all trades; 150 in three years, 115 in five years and 170 is 10 years; technical and skilled labour, 264 in three years, 125 in five years and 225 in ten years; in retail services and hospitality, 350 in three years, 150 in five years and 235 in 10; an public administration and governance, 55 in three years, 55 in five years and 55 in ten years.

According to the report, communities on the North Coast face three challenges in filing future employment. First, many of the region’s skilled trades people left when the pulp mill closed. Second, there is a strong growth predicted for B. C.’s economy. And third, there is a skills shortage world-wide and Canada’s population is aging.

“By the year 2010, for the first time in our history our workforce is expected to be shrinking as declining birthrates combined with an aging population see more people exiting the workforce than entering,” reads the report.

The study goes on to say that only a portion of the skilled labour requirements for Phase 1 of the development of the container port could be filled with existing labour. Either former residents would be lured back or new skilled workers will need to be recruited or trained. For Phase II, this type of labour will increase, meaning that training and recruiting of skilled labour would need to be expanded.

“The purpose of this is to gather enough data so we would know what Phase II would look like, where are those gaps going to be and what kind of training needs to be in place,” said Angus. ”If in three years, we know we are going to need 10 millwrights, then BCIT and the college can get together and plan for that. That’s really where we want to go with this.”