Economic News/Trends and Analysis — February 3, 2010
More than 700,000 Ontarians will be unemployable by 2021: report
"If current trends continue, hundreds of thousands of people will lack the necessary skills to find any work,"
"The unemployment crisis in Ontario will be far more severe than the current recession."
Using data from Human Resources and Skills Development
However, if current trends continue, only about 64 per cent of the workforce in Ontario is actually expected to have acquired postsecondary credentials by that point. The shortfall will mean a lot more jobs without people.
Meanwhile, due to the retirement of the baby boomers and an under-qualified workforce, there will be about 1.3 million job openings throughout the economy that will go unfilled.
"We have to accept that the demographic changes that are coming cannot be wished away,"
"Our members are already facing a shortage of qualified employees in the years ahead," said Clive Thurston, president of the Ontario General Contractors Association. "Now there's clear evidence that this situation will get a lot worse. We need to work with government and educators right now to address this challenge."
While increasing immigration could help attract more skilled workers to Ontario, it will not solve the problem. Immigrants do not fare as well as native-born Canadians in terms of employability. Too often their credentials are not appropriately recognized and/or they require additional education and training.
He also said it is essential that Ontario increases the participation in the workforce of groups that are traditionally under-represented, such as aboriginals, women, people with disabilities, younger and older workers. These could be important sources of additional workers.
"We need to make significant changes," he said. "If we don't, the result will be an economy that can't complete globally and a society that can't provide opportunities for people to find employment."
"At a time when we are worried about economic recovery, this report is a stark call to action for government, industry and educators and identifies a much bigger problem," said
For further information: Sally Ritchie, Senior Communications Officer, Colleges Ontario, (416) 596-0744 ext. 242, (416) 471-2194 Cell
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Updated 18:03 MDT, September 2, 2010 
Construction/Building
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