The Global skill shortage is deepening, can be borne out from the data released by the Immigration department in Canada. This has been something employers and industry have been saying all along, but hard quantifiable numbers are usually difficult to come by. First lets look at the data, and then explore some of the possible results of the same.
For the second half of 2010 (June to December), Canada had announced it will accept a 1000 applications (for permanent residence) each, from about 40 occupations. These are occupations identified by the Government of Canada where there is a skills shortage and the industry needs more manpower. How are these applicants found – through the following ways
- Applicants can apply directly to the nearest Canadian embassy
- Representatives authorized by the Canadian government – immigration specialists (close to 2000 members) or lawyers that are members of the bar.
Fair to say that a recruitment force of a few thousand professionals had six months to find “clients” or “immigrants” for Canada.
Now let us look at the hard numbers. For the six month period, the grand total of applications submitted, for a sampling of professions -
Dental Hygienists & Technicians……. 9 (not a typo – it is nine applications)
Medical Radiation Technologists…… 20 (that is twenty)
Chefs……. 41
Cooks……. 94
Crane Operators….. 2
The case with technical trades is no better. With the success rate for plumbers, welders and heavy-equipment mechanics extremely weak too (20, 21 and 23 respectively).
If you are a H.R. professional, and your incentives are tied to your recruitment performance, your payroll team would likely be staring at a 20/1000 ~ 2% number on their screens. That is you have performed to 2% of your expected abilities.
What does this mean for the various stakeholders -
Industry in Canada -
The pool of professionals available for employment is getting smaller. Secondly, “Brand Canada” as a destination for professionals, seems to have taken a beating. Thirdly, if your people-competitiveness will impact your survival, you need to globalize your strategies. Strategies on the line of what American technology companies are adopting to survive, when faced with challenges in hiring foreign professionals. If the human resource can not or will not come to the industry, the industry goes global and opens offices overseas.
Skilled Professionals around the world -
As the ‘consumer’, you speak, and you have spoken loud and clear. Many of you have mentioned in your emails that Canada’s humungous processing delays (4 to 7 years) have tested your patience. Yes Canada is a great place to live, but you would rather choose a destination where your immigration application does not take more than a year (there are options in Middle East, Europe, Japan, USA ?)
Strange to be seeing these numbers and writing a skills shortage piece, while most of the ‘Developed’ world is going through one of its most challenging slowdowns. As the economies strengthen and hiring picks up in the first half o 2011, won’t things get even more challenging for industry ?
[All data for this article was obtained from the Citizenship & Immigration Canada website]
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Opinions are of the writer. To reach the writer of this post, please send in your comments to Jim Maxell at the email jmaxell@gmail.com
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