“We knew the labour shortage had a very negative impact on leaders of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),” said by press release François Vincent, vice-president for Quebec at the CFIB. “They have to work more hours, and their employees as well. They’re forced to refuse contracts and business opportunities.”

Vincent adds that those SMEs could have benefited from these sums to recover, grow and revitalize their regions. For him, the labour shortage issue is very bad news for SME leaders.

CFIB’s assessment is based on data from a survey conducted last March. The results relating to the losses suffered by SMEs were calculated using the average total income of a Quebec SME, published by Statistics Canada for the year 2020, by sector of activity. Let’s note that the analysis only takes into account SMEs with revenues between $30,000 and $5 million, in order to have a conservative assessment.

All Sectors

In a report published last April, the CFIB revealed how the labour shortage was affecting all industries, and leading to an explosion of job vacancies, thus putting a lot of pressure on SMEs.

Today’s research note also highlights the economic impacts by activity sector.

The construction and professional and administrative services sectors are registering losses of more than $2 billion. SMEs in the lodging/food and retail sectors are experiencing losses of nearly a billion. In the wholesale trade and transportation sectors, these losses total $1.2 billion.

Measures

The lack of employees is cited by 86 per cent of small business owners in Quebec as the most difficult issue to overcome in 2022, just behind the increase in costs, mentioned by 87 per cent of them.

“The Government of Quebec has adopted several measures to support companies seeking employees, and has just made changes so that all SMEs have access to tax credits to attract workers,” explained Vincent in the press release. “That said, more actions are possible and necessary to help those businesses, especially in terms of taxation, where Quebec is the country’s champion.” (A.B.)

L’article Nearly $11 Billion Lost Due to Labour Shortage est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

Here’s a direct impact of the labour shortage, which has “the effect of a steamroller” on all economic activity sectors in the province, to better reflect the thoughts of Quebec’s vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), François Vincent.

Director of Laval économique, Lidia Divry pointed out in an interview with the Courrier Laval that the rate of vacant positions had practically doubled in two years, going from 3.7 to 6.5 per cent. In short, it means that of the 183,540 positions listed in Laval, only 171,575 were taken during the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the most recent Statistics Canada survey.

During that 24-month period, the number of vacancies increased by more than 80 per cent, with 5,370 new positions to fill, while the number of salaried employees was up by just 1945.

The ratio is three to one. The aging of the population is obviously no stranger to the situation, which is reflected across the province and the country.

To Compare

The rate of vacant positions recorded in Canada (5.3 per cent) and in Quebec (6 per cent) is lower that the one observed in Laval (6.5 per cent), reveals the latest quarterly survey published.

That being said, the number of vacancies in Canada has reached an all-time high of 915,545 in the fourth quarter of 2021. The same thing occurred in Quebec, where vacant positions were at 238,140.

Compared to the pre-pandemic period, two years before, the unmet workforce demand has increased by 80 per cent (+406,955 vacancies) in Canada, and by 86 per cent (+109,730 vacancies) in Quebec.

In the ranking of the 15 administrative regions of the province, Laval has the fourth highest rate of vacancies behind Outaouais (7.6 per cent), Capitale-Nationale (7.4 per cent), and Côte-Nord and Nord-du-Québec (both at 7 per cent). The only region whose rate is below the 5 per cent mark is Mauricie.

In the greater metropolitan area, Montreal’s region stands out with the lowest vacancy rate at 5.6 per cent, followed by Lanaudière (5.9 per cent), Laurentides (6.2 per cent) and Montérégie (6.3 per cent).

Heavy Trend

Steadily rising since the second quarter of 2018, the unmet labour demand is a structural problem, recalls the President and CEO of the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie de Laval, Caroline De Guire. “We have until 2036,” she warns, while referring to the decline of labour pools linked to the aging of the population.

In fact, Canada’s working-age population has never been older, with more than one in five people approaching retirement. More precisely, people aged 55 to 64 make up for 21.8 per cent of people aged 15 to 64. Those statistics are from the 2021 Census, made public on April 27.

Moreover, the record wave of retirements among baby boomers, now aged between 57 and 76, is one of the factors behind the labour shortage, which continues to grow.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate reached a historic low last month in Quebec, with 3.9 per cent. On Île Jésus’s territory, the rate drops to 3.5 per cent.

Mobilization

“The labour shortage is a multi-faceted problem,” Divry said, whose team is hard at work in preparation for the Summit that Laval économique will hold on the issue on Thursday, September 29.

“Through that forum, we want to think about short-term solutions, but also want to give ourselves a medium-term vision,” she followed.

Employability, training, attraction/retention and economic development are the four main projects that will guide the programming.

The Commission des partenaires du marché du travail, all the sectoral manpower committees, educational institutions, company groups, and departments and agencies, including Services Québec and the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Immigration, Francization and Integration, are involved.

“We don’t have the choice of furniture,” Divry said, who salutes the mobilization of all socio-economic partners in the region.

Although the situation is worrying, the region has some key assets, including “a higher employment rate than Quebec’s and Canada’s one, a sustained population growth, a large pool of people with an immigrant background, in addition to a good youth representation,” the direction of Laval économique concludes, on a note of optimism.

translated by Alec Brideau

L’article Labour Shortage: 12,000 vacancies in Laval est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.