The manufacturing sector in the Quinte Region continues to struggle to fill jobs.
At Thursday’s meeting of the Quinte Economic Development Commission, the board of directors received a report on the manufacturing portion of the 2020 Employer One Survey, an annual survey of local employers.
Brad Labadie, Executive Director of the Centre For Workforce Development told the board the sector was already struggling pre-pandemic and COVID has only made it more difficult.
But Labadie says, ultimately, there just aren’t enough people applying for jobs.
“Bar none, lack of applicants was the lead category as to why they have difficulty filling positions. Some employers did relate to COVID-19 reasons but there’s still a little bit of fear out there around, ‘too afraid to work’.”
Labadie says when employers have a very small pool of applicants, it becomes more difficult to find the right person with the proper skill set to fill the available job.
He did note that more than one-third of manufacturing employers said COVID had a significantly negative impact on hiring.
“And a lot of that had to do with the labour force either not being able to hire or people that were perhaps having to leave and go on CERB because now all of sudden families are at home due to lockdown. So a variety of reasons that COVID-19 impacted.”
On the positive side, it means there is plenty of opportunity.
“We look at some of the negativity but I think that negativity is more about what do we do to help address those components where employers are struggling and that’s what this report is about. It’s about developing programs and initiatives and taking it back to the Ontario government so they understand what employers are saying as well.”
Overall, 306 employers completed the 2020 Employer One Survey with manufacturing representing 14% of responses.
Results of the full survey are expected to be released in mid to late April.
