Hospital emergency rooms are down, restaurants are no longer open at noon and malls are looking for Santa Claus: in Canada Many sectors face unprecedented labor shortages, a problem that undermines the country’s economic recovery.
A few weeks before the festive season of Christmas The Jeff Gilroy, the company’s Just Be Claus is at a dead end: he has managed to hire only 24 Santa Claus when he needs ten times as much. “I had to reject 200 events and I still reject others every day,” he said.
For his part Eric Igari has tried everything: he has phoned friends and even regular customers to close the holes in the waiter program of the mexican restaurant he has in Ottawa. In its shop window, as well as in many shops in its capital Canada but also in Montreal, there is the inscription: “We are looking for staff”.
In the summer, customers returned to the restaurants after the lifting of the restrictive measures due to covid-19. But as in his restaurant Ιγκάρι two employees are missing, he and his wife are unable to meet the demand. A few days ago they hired a cook who worked three hours before resigning, judging the job to be very difficult and the salary very low.
“Now we have to close earlier because my wife and I are exhausted,” he explained. Ιγκάρι.
“Destruction”
Overall in Canada There were 871,600 job vacancies in August, of which 156,800 in the catering sector and 121,300 in health, almost double the number in 2019, according to data published in October by the Canadian Statistical Office.
Overall, 55% of entrepreneurs say they have difficulty finding staff, forcing them to work longer hours and postpone or refuse orders, according to a report. Business Development Bank of Canada. And more than a third of entrepreneurs find it difficult to keep their employees.
The sectors most affected are health, catering, construction and manufacturing, mainly in the provinces. Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
In the Quebec Large employers’ organizations sounded the alarm last week over an “unprecedented crisis” and “financial disaster” and called on the government to allow more migrants to enter.
According to economist Travis Stratton of Deloitte Canada, the causes of this condition are many, mainly the aging of its population Canada and the recent decline in immigration due to travel restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, which were lifted only in September.
Lack of medical staff causes particular problems. In the southwest Montreal, the hospital Lachine recently announced that emergencies would close at 19:30 due to “critical shortage of nurses”, the Gilda Salomon, a representative of the hospital.
This lack pushed his provinces Quebec and Ontario not to make mandatory the vaccination of sanitary against it covid-19.
Only teenagers
In some industries, wages are rising sharply to attract candidates, but “this option is not available to many small businesses that have not yet recovered from the damage caused by the pandemic,” she said. Jasmine Genet of Canadian Federation of Independent Enterprises (FCEI).
In Canada SMEs have accumulated debts of C $ 170,000 (€ 119,000) on average, according to a poll by Federation. And about 180,000 businesses, or one in six, are in danger of closing.
THE Roman Beso, owner of a cafe in the center Montreal, said he was looking for two employees and within 21 weeks only 5 candidates appeared, three of whom were teenagers.
For his part Benoit Prete, manager of the hotel Parade in the Montreal, is looking for 25 employees for various positions.
“We find it difficult to operate the hotel at 100% of its capacity, despite the fact that there are customers”, he comments and states that he is worried about the “holiday season” and the spring of 2022.
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