Value of Skill Vacancies in Canada – $25 billion in 2020, which is equivalent to 1.3 per cent of GDP

This issue briefing looks at the economic cost to Canada of being unable to fill all the demand for skills.

We estimate that the unrealized value of skill vacancies in the Canadian economy was $25 billion in 2020, which is equivalent to 1.3 per cent of GDP. This represents the sum of the unrealized skill vacancies across all 35 skills in the O*NET framework. The six skills for which vacancies incur the highest costs are active listening, critical thinking, reading comprehension, speaking, monitoring, and coordination. (See Chart 1.) The cost of vacancies related to these skills equalled $1 billion or more for each of them.

Conversely, the skill vacancy with the lowest unrealized value was installation, for which the value in 2020 was just over $100 million, slightly less than one-tenth the value associated with vacancies in active listening. We also found that task and technically oriented skills, such as operations analysis, operations and control, equipment maintenance, and equipment selection, are typically at the bottom of the list in terms of unrealized value.

• The six most highly valued skill vacancies are active listening, critical thinking, reading comprehension, speaking, monitoring, and coordination. Vacancies related to each of these skills currently cost the Canadian economy $1 billion or more annually in unrealized value owing to unfilled job vacancies.
• Providing valuations of these costs among the occupations allows policy-makers and educators to prioritize investments.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story @  Lost Opportunities: Measuring the Unrealized Value of Skill Vacancies in Canada