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.
Right now, there are about 31,250 people locally who could work but are excluded from processes for recruitment and retention in eastern Ontario. This group of people might feel discouraged by the job seeking process, they may be living in poverty, or be affected by other factors like age. Regardless, this hidden workforce is a group of residents who can start working for eastern Ontario employers like you. If you didn’t know about this hidden workforce and are wondering how to hire employees like these right now, read on.
As an employer you may find yourself in a near constant cycle of hiring. It’s a carousel that’s difficult to get off of because high employee turnover seems to necessitate it. Workforce development professionals have been studying the labour force participation rate in eastern Ontario to try to solve this exact problem. If you want to learn more about how to reduce high employee turnover and improve recruitment and retention in eastern Ontario, read on.
There might be a gap in your employee retention strategies if you employ youth or want to employ youth. Youth in eastern Ontario are members of a hidden workforce that are available for employment but are often, unintentionally, overlooked by employers due to gaps in communication because of factors like age and poverty. If you’re employing members of this hidden workforce or you plan to, read on to learn retention strategies to close the gap in communication and keep this powerful workforce in the eastern Ontario community and part of the economy.
