Brian Matthews, manager of market development of the RBC Royal Bank in Truro, is nearing retirement. He is one of many people Canada-wide who will say goodbye to employment in the near future, a situation which will leave a shortage of employees in the workforce.
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We’re a retiring workforce ...
By Harry Sullivan
The Truro Daily News
TRURO, Colchester County, Nova Scotia (The Truro Daily News), March 5, 2008:
Aging workers nearing retirement age is a growing issue that will have to be addressed in the not-so-distant future, a local Chamber of Commerce official says.
“I think there is definitely a concern in terms of future shortages of skilled workers,” said chamber president Ted Jordon, in response to the latest census figures that show more than 13 per cent of the Truro workforce is nearing retirement age.
In order to address such concerns, Jordan believes efforts should be initiated to keep older workers on the job later. He offers such suggestions as not requiring seniors to continue paying income tax or removing other employment disincentives such as clawing back their pensions if they remain in the workforce.
“It would be good if they could change that sort of thing,” he said. “I think we’ve got to look at those options because, let’s face it, the workforce just isn’t there. It’s a Canada-wide problem ... Like it or not, that’s that reality.”
Census information shows a continuing trend across Canada of fewer younger workers coming on stream to replace retiring baby boomers combined with labour market predictions of widespread shortage of workers impacting a broad range of occupations.
“There’s not as many booming markets now, even out West,” surmised Brian Matthews, manager of market development at the RBC Royal Bank in Truro who will retire this summer.
“There aren’t as many applicants for jobs today and definitely less experienced ones.”
Matthews said there are strategies employers can implement to attract new workers.
“Employers have to make their environment attractive and make it a place (employees) could have a career at for a long time.”
Not to say job seekers don’t have their own responsibilities.
“People looking to fill jobs should have fresh ideas, a good attitude and good work ethic and also bring their own life experiences to show how they can make a positive impact and not just fill a spot. It should never be about ‘just settling’ for an employee.”
Jordan adds that while keeping older workers employed longer would also help alleviate the situation to a degree, he believes new immigration programs should be initiated that would attract a number of families from the same ethnic group to smaller communities and rural areas. Such a program would help eliminate the problems of loneliness and isolation that many such families face when they move into an area that does not have any of their own people already in place, he believes.
“Try some sort of test project,” Jordan suggested. “I think our problem in this province is, you know, we can’t get critical masses of whatever ethnic group is of interest. They want to move to larger centres with more of their own culture.”
The fact, however, that Truro’s aging workforce numbers are slightly higher than the provincial average did not come as a surprise to Jordan.
“No, not for me because I believe Truro, like it or not, is a bit of a retirement place,” he said. “So, no, I’m not surprised. I think Truro’s been like that for a very long time.”
© The Daily News
