Canada / Encourage Americans to head north and fill skilled positions says Conference Board

Here’s a nifty way to get the right workers into Canada and help the U.S. unemployment situation at the same time: Encourage Americans to head north and fill skilled positions on this side of the border. That’s the recommendation of a new report from the Conference Board of Canada that makes some interesting points while coming to what some may consider a controversial conclusion.

The crux of the matter is this: Canada has unfilled jobs and U.S. workers may be the best ones to fill them. Yes, Canada had an unemployment rate of 7.1 per cent as of August, but there are plenty of places and plenty of occupations where the unemployment rate is much lower. In Alberta, for example, the unemployment rate is 4.8 per cent and there are an estimated 50,000 unfilled vacancies right now, with about twice that number expected to materialize over the next decade. Why? Because there is a resource boom in that province and that means all kinds of workers are in demand. In particular, there is a need for skilled tradespeople, although there are openings in all kinds of positions, high- and lower-skilled alike.

via Solving Canada’s skills shortage – with Americans – The Globe and Mail.