Staffing shortages in the North are not new. But according to Rob Warburton, president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, this is a national problem that isn’t going away anytime soon.
“It’s putting up an ad for a job and getting zero applicants.”
Warburton said that while service sectors are most evidently struggling, government, construction and other areas are also experiencing a lack of staff. Sectors that typically have high volumes of employees, simply do not. And at the same time, demand is at an all-time high, especially during the warmer summer vacation months.
Warburton said he has heard from retail, restaurant and other food service industries that times are tough.
“There’s not enough people to do the jobs we need and then on top of that there’s essentially a zero vacancy for rental units right now so housing is a big problem.”
Lower-income entry-level jobs aren’t being filled as there isn’t enough available labour to fill them, Warburton said.
“It’s hitting everywhere. It’s not as simple as a wage issue, it’s a supply issue. There’s not enough people that are looking to work who aren’t already employed somewhere,” Warburton said. “The whole country is suffering from this problem.”
He emphasized there are massive waiting lists for any kind of skilled labour like plumbing, trade, land and ply divisions.
It’s a similar story for Liz Wyman, owner of Office Compliments. She said they are also experiencing a staffing shortage with few applicants answering ads.
“We’ve gone through this before in the north so it’s typical,” she said. “Our doors are open and we’re wanting anybody that is looking for a position to stop in and see us and we’re willing to train on the job.”
The cost of living up north remains expensive making it even harder to attract new people.
“We’re losing kind of the attractive edge we had a few years ago as a destination,” Warburton said. “I think the only option to get people up here the way we need is to aggressively work with the government to figure out how to get more people up here.”
Immigration, new policy developments and other creative ideas are some ways to potentially offset the staffing shortage.
Watching new buildings going up, Warburton said he is confident the housing crisis will ease in the north in a couple of years. It seems most businesses have maxed out all available staffing opportunities and some businesses are reducing their hours even during the popular summer season, he said.
“Any industry that is kind of labour intensive is going to have to figure out a new way of operating cause this isn’t going away. This is Canada-wide for a long time.”