Canada’s labor shortage hurting post-pandemic recovery, study finds

According to Statistics Canada’s latest job vacancy data, an inability to find workers is hampering the country’s post-Covid-19 economic recovery.

The report says that the labor shortage is widespread across several different sectors of the economy — despite a national unemployment rate above seven per cent.

In the hospitality industry, for example, food service bosses are trying to tempt back workers who left during the pandemic with profit-sharing, bonuses and health benefits, among other perks.

Meanwhile, a study released Wednesday by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a Crown corporation that assists entrepreneurs, reported that 55 percent of small and medium-sized businesses in Canada are struggling to hire the workers they need, which is limiting growth and forcing companies to delay or refuse new orders.

Among the study’s key findings were that 64 percent of entrepreneurs say their growth is limited by a labor shortage, 61 percent say they have had to boost their and/or their employees’ hours, and 44 percent have delayed or are unable to deliver orders.