At almost the same rate you see election signs, you will see help wanted signs dotting the landscape anywhere you go in our city.
From the food and service industries to specialty positions like truck maintenance, it seems like you can’t go anywhere without seeing people looking for workers.
Rory Ring is the Chief Executive Officer of the Sault Ste. Marie Chamber of Commerce. He suggests there are multiple reasons for the problem. Some of them are Sault-specific and others are caused by more national issues.
He believes it’s not so much a challenge of finding people who want to work but people with the right skill set for the position.
“Because of COVID you’ve had a number of folks that have changed careers, changes jobs, have taken advantage of some of the training and moved on to other lines of work,” said Ring. “There’s a shrinking demographic and an older demographic… we’re not really attracting as many youth as we need to fill the positions, we’re not attracting as many new immigrants… and we certainly need to be better at engaging our indigenous community as they’re the fastest growing youth population.”
Ring also pointed out the pandemic has been harder on women, with many choosing not to return to the workforce until their childcare and education challenges have leveled out. He says there needs to be a concerted effort at all levels to both create positions for women and add more diversity to the workforce.
The third issue he identified is that some of the financial support the government is providing in this moment makes it less appealing to find a job.
“Some of the support programs that have been offered through the pandemic have taken people out of the workforce,” said Ring. “It’s our hope that as we move into [and] through to the fall, that some of those support mechanisms will be ratcheted down, so that it makes it more attractive for people to re-enter the workforce.”
His observations are qualified by local business owners throughout the community. Kurtis McDermid, owner of Odd Job Jacks, recently spoke with SaultOnline about his company’s issues finding workers.
“Our struggle to find employees has been especially hard the last 2 years. Trying every tactic I can think of,” said McDermitt.
He said that they get frequent requests for cash payment only, or he’s told his wages are too low, or that they only want full-time employment or that childcare is an issue, with the last being one he’s hearing more and more frequently.
According to his most recent post on the struggles he has had, only about a dozen people showed up to his open hiring session this past weekend for The Clean Team and Odd Job Jacks.
This is an ever-changing and dynamic situation in the Sault, with multiple factors playing into it at any given time.
SaultOnline will continue to investigate the issues affecting you and your community including this one going forward and bring the stories back to you that matter.
Maybe if you respected your potential candidates, they’d show up
If you can’t acquire or retain workers it’s not an “US” problem, it’s a “YOU” problem.
If you want to find and keep good people then you have to PAY!
If you want to offer “student” wages for full time workers you get what you pay for!
And when and if it comes to all people need to be vaccinated to be employed it will become even more of an issue for businesses
another issue that is being ignored once again from mr ring and crew is that businesses often will not even hire people with disabilities or make accomodations to allow for people with disabilities to work in their business plus people with disabilities that did not qualify for cerb did not receive govt supports during the pandemic except 3 100 dollar amonth payments 1 had to apply for… many people with disabilities would love to work where they are capable but are not given a chance and thats even with clawbacks from earnings by ontario govt
Amen.
I’ve been trying to re-enter the work force for a few years. These agencies for the disabled also discriminate against the capable disabled.
I’ve filed a complaint with the Ombudsman against a few agencies. Please, I encourage you to do the same. Action can be taken if we complain.
I think part of the problem as Rory mentioned…. getting money from government, which in my opinion should be stopped and/or determine based on individual needs. Watch how fast these positions get filled. There is a lot of lazy people out there! There are a lot of work in Sault Ste Marie, if you really want to work!
I think one of the biggest issues is wearing a mask and getting the jab. Some of us want to work but with inability to wear a mask. ( FOR Health reasons ) and not wanting to be poisoned by the jab. Makes it very difficult to find work. 😕
Lol poisoned ? You have absolute proof of that of course other than Facebook and tiktok, right !
Generally people who are hiring are looking for some level of brain activity. A candidate believing a vaccine is poison is an indication that no activity can be detected.
How about all the jobs you apply for and there are like 200 candidates only for them to hire internally through their union and not even send an email or give a callback..works both ways. All these jobs being available is a myth, it’s just people moving around the company in internal positions. A job shouldn’t be posted externally until it’s actually available.
Yes, people go out of their way to post job openings for jobs they don’t intend to hire for, have already hired for or already know of someone they’re absolutely going to hire for. Mmm-hmmm.
Tax deductible.
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