A severe shortage of skilled workers combined with a surplus of jobs in Canada is the portrait of Canada’s future, according to experts.
Rick Miner, president emeritus of Toronto’s Seneca College, told the audience of a Liberal party policy conference in Montreal last week that Canada is facing the prospect of “people without jobs and jobs without people”.
It is expected that, by 2031, 80% of all new jobs will require skilled workers, up from the 65% of jobs that require those workers nowadays. According to Miner, not even immigration itself will be enough to address the issue.
Experts also agree that the list of jobs that will suffer from lack of skilled professionals will include some uncommon occupations, such as memory augmentation surgeons, old-age wellness managers, weather-modification police and commercial-space pilots.
Pierre Forin, economist at the University of Montreal, also warned the conference audience about the disparity between the number of baby boomers that will retire and the workers that will take their places. "This will put Canada's finances in dire straits. This is not a weather prediction. This is certain."
