With an ageing population and record low unemployment rates, Canada offers plenty of opportunities for Global job seekers. In the field of engineering and tech, especially, reports have confirmed that employers are desperate to fill positions in their workforce, yet lack skilled workers to fill them. This is called the skills gap. As a result, this skills gap has had a significant impact on the demand for Human Resource Managers in tune with the latest research and methods in recruiting and sourcing the right people for the job.
As in the US, in Canada there has also been a great deal of discussion in recent years about a skills gap across many industries (especially burgeoning digital fields). The skills gap refers to a discrepancy between skills workers have and the skills that are required in an increasingly competitive global market.
One of Canada’s solutions is to increase immigration to 1 million by 2020, as such, ‘newcomer’ funding has increased, meaning that there is a drive on recruitment, but also a push to get human resource managers in to address this problem and widen the talent pool.
While Canada looks to widen the talent pool by encouraging migration into the country, employers are also investing time to reskill workers and create talent pipelines with Higher Education Institutions, in order to meet demand. However, recruiters and HR managers are being recruited (in part) to provide specialist assistance in filling these skills gaps with these capable people.
Because of this skills gap issue, human resource professionals are required to better understand these niche markets and to develop effective methods in sourcing, hiring and retaining employees with the right skills for the job.
Where demand is high, especially in the tech fields, competition to bring in the most talented Al researchers, automation engineers (all brand new jobs in the Canadian job market) is high.
The solution to bridge all skills gaps is a focus on human resource managers who can address improved training among employees; develop resources for reskilling the workforce; and recruitment and selection of better skilled employees to improve the situation long term.
Graduates stand a great chance of employment. According to a study conducted in 2014, the placement rate for graduates in human resources management was 76.2% and 81.6% for graduates in human resources.
A comparison of the job market for professional positions in different Canadian cities reveals that the highest demand is in Toronto (13,088 job offers), followed by Montreal and Ottawa (7,926 and 2,293 job offers, respectively). A lucrative career, assisting the Canadian ambition to address these skills gaps within HR management and recruitment is well worth exploration.
