Leaders in Workforce Development

The Fleming Employment Hub, created by Muskoka-Kawarthas Employment Services, provides access to FREE training courses to support leadership and enhance the workplace. The Muskokas-Kawarthas Employment Service is a one-stop service for employers and job seekers to find opportunities for sustainable employment, build prosperity, and strengthen the regional economy. 

This feature originally appeared in Eastern Workforce Innovation Board’s October 2021 Newsletter, with thanks to the author Diane Soucie. 

There are many business resources available to employers who are hiring, looking for grants and funding, training opportunities, and more. But the seemingly simple job of finding all these resources is quite a long research process. To continue to facilitate recruitment and retention in eastern Ontario for all employers, we’ve compiled a list of 7 business resources to help you grow your business. 

First Nations, Metis, and Inuit youth are the fastest-growing age group in Canada, but they are a demographic that is commonly excluded from the workforce. Indigenous people make up 4.9% of the population, and while 1.6% of this group who are aged 25-54 have a college diploma, most have 5-10 years of work experience. This gap in perceived expertise or training, along with bias and discrimination in hiring practices, might be some of the factors keeping Indigenous people from the workforce. 

When you’ve moved to a new country (or if you’ve lived here for a while) one of the most pressing and stressful tasks ahead is finding a well-paying job. Combine your job search with finding a place to live with a high quality of life, perhaps learning a new language or culture, and navigating immigration bureaucracy, becoming a new Canadian is stressful. 

The peaks and valleys of business make entrepreneurship an exhilarating and anxious experience. It means long hours and the constant need for skills development and training. For many women who are entrepreneurs, it also means juggling work life with family responsibilities, whether that be caring for children or a loved one. Or being left out of business communities that have often been male-dominated spaces. 

Rate the work-life balance of your employees, and their access to skills development and career planning, on a scale from 1 to 10. Chances are your rating is already pretty high. But if you knew that these factors are some of the most important for job seekers when they’re looking for a new job, would you say your rating is high enough?

Labour market information (LMI) is data gold for the eastern Ontario workforce. Besides providing timely and accurate information about the labour market in our region, the data is used to respond to community needs to optimize the workforce landscape for employers and job seekers in the future. 

It’s no secret that there is a workforce shortage in the eastern Ontario region. Through the hard work of employers, job seekers, workforce development professionals, and EDOs, that gap in recruitment and retention in eastern Ontario is beginning to be filled. One of the ways is by attracting more international talent to the region as well as making it easier for employers to hire that talent. 

Right now in eastern Ontario, there are approximately 31,250 residents who are available for work and able to work but are not working. Workforce development professionals call these residents the Hidden Workforce.