Canadian Labour Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER news Photo: Aaron Harris (Reuters) The fear of future labour shortages in Canada is largely unfounded, according to the IRPP. Co-operation between employers and educators — facili- tated by government — will ensure Canada's labour market prospers, according to IRPP research director Tyler Meredith. can be doing to improve the out- comes for graduates and workers and to improve the competitive- ness of Canadian businesses," Meredith said. "There's a need to look at what we can be doing bet- ter." Looking at a series of stud- ies commissioned in 2013 by the Social Sciences and Humani- ties Research Council (SSHRC), Meredith argues there is no cause for alarm regarding the labour market. "Despite the long and under- whelming recovery, Canada's labour market is doing all right," says Meredith. "We do not lack talent, and the demand and supply of labour are fairly well balanced at the national level." No evidence Canada won't have enough workers: Study The SSHRC's studies found no evidence to support recent claims Canada's labour force won't have enough workers to meet demand between now and 2030. Instead, data indicates the labour force will continue to grow — albeit at a much slower rate. The debate surrounding short- ages, which persists despite data to the contrary, stems from a reli- ance on long-term labour market projections, Meredith said. Few would have predicted the current boom in technology thanks to the development of mobile applica- tions — it is difficult to predict future labour shortages when we have so little idea what the future world will look like. More micro-data is needed to better understand how firms respond to labour shortages and the data collected at a national level needs to be more qualita- tive. Employers and educational institutions also need to be more involved in the collection and analysis of data to create a more complete picture of Canada's la- bour market. "Frankly, businesses can't just sit on the sidelines and snipe about the problems in the labour market," Meredith said. "They've got to be part of the solution. We also have to get beyond this aver- sion that exists in parts of the edu- cation system that say 'We train graduates and we should be ag- nostic about the specific needs of the labour market because those are always changing.' I think you need to bring both sides of the equation together." Government, as the sole en- tity straddling all of the domains involved in the labour market, is the only player capable of bring- ing these pieces together, said Meredith. Strong partnerships needed: CFIB Ted Mallett — vice president and chief economist with the Cana- dian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) in Toronto — agreed a stronger partnership needs to be formed, saying em- ployers need to be a part of the collection and analysis of data as it applies to labour market policy. "Employers are the ones who see best the complexity associ- ated with running a business and the challenges they face in the everyday administration of run- ning a workforce," Mallett said. "But we're dealing with snippets of information, sometimes overly simplified information. We're trying to get an idea of what the moving picture is but we only have snapshots." Context is necessary for the in- formation provided — to employ- ers, educators and government — to have a significant impact on the labour market. Business owners should be consulted And as much as the expertise of employers is needed to properly analyze the labour market data, Mallett said it is equally important business owners are consulted in the creation of labour market policy. "We want to make sure policy makers understand the micro- complexities of the labour mar- ket and are aware of the impact of various policies or requirements on those day-to-day administra- tions," Mallett said. "Even the best statistics will be only a very crude approximation of reality." France St-Hilaire, vice presi- dent of research for the IRPP, hopes this collaboration will be forthcoming. Ideally — through the collabo- ration of government, employ- ers and educational institutes — future policy will focus less on sweeping programs that cham- pion average outcomes and focus more on putting in place condi- tions under which the labour market will begin to work for the workers and employers. "To have good policy you have to have good data," St-Hilaire said. "In order to improve our data col- lection systems and to identify the right research priorities, you have to understand what it is you have and what it is you are miss- ing." Government needs to engage employers: CFIB < from pg. 1

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