BC records job growth despite challenges in some sectors
Posted April 8, 2016 12:09 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Our province’s employment situation continues to be an exception in a tough national economy, but certain sectors continue to have trouble attracting and retaining workers.
New figures from Statistics Canada indicate 72,000 jobs have been added here since this time last year.
But when you zero in on certain sectors, there continue to be challenges.
Take kitchens, where Ian Tostenson with the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association says there are big recruitment issues. “I think that we need to, and some of the things we’re going to look at, is how do you recruit some of the other parts of the potential work force, whether it’s retired people, people with disabilities,” says Tostenson.
Tostenson points to restrictions on the temporary foreign worker program as a particularly tough blow for the industry in recent times.
“The real honest side is we seem to have a few things going against us, demographics,” says Tostenson. “We don’t know if there are as many people getting into the culinary program. When you look at a kitchen, from a chef right down to a kitchen helper washing dishes. It’s not a wage issue. Supply and demand have pushed wages up in kitchens in British Columbia, which is good for the workers.
“It’s really, how many people are coming into the stream? But we don’t have enough people frankly, organically, in British Columbia to fill [the gap.]”
Tostenson has heard a number of people who had considered opening restaurants have actually held off due to this labour shortage issue, and specifically the new restrictions on temporary foreign workers.
