Source: Carrefour des lecteurs | Le Quotidien
OPINION / It's an open secret: with the pandemic lull, the labor situation in Quebec has worsened. We have known for a long time that the phenomenon of the aging of the population was soon to strike, but the dazzling economic recovery and the large withdrawal from the labor force have accelerated the problem of the shortage of manpower. No region is an exception, far from it.
Every day, we receive testimonials and calls for help from entrepreneurs or managers in the region who consider this problem to be a priority, vital. To put the urgency of the situation into perspective, during the last annual survey of the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie Saguenay-Le Fjord (CCISF) among its members, 82% of them identified the labor shortage. -work as an issue for the coming year. The second most cited issue followed with 35%. That's a gigantic gap.
Official statistics confirm how the business community feels on the ground. For the month of May, the unemployment rate in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean was 4%. In a context where the number of vacant positions has gone from 3140 in 2020 to 5660 recently, there is reason to worry about our economic vitality!
We understand that the situation is a complex social problem and that the measures to be implemented are multiple. We will have to accelerate our actions on several fronts: immigration, labor mobility, training and skills development. The Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (FCCQ) has also summarized very well the expectations of the Quebec Chambers of Commerce towards the next government.
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