Bridging the Labour Gap: Latest Labour Supply Report Available

Tourism HR Canada is pleased to announce the availability of the third in its series of three labour supply and demand reports.

Bottom Line: Bridging the Labour Gap quantifies the effect of strategies that could fill the 240,000-job shortfall in the tourism sector.

Specifically, it quantifies the number of jobs that would be filled by:

Increasing levels of immigration and increasing non-permanent residents’ transition to permanent residency
Increasing the attractiveness of tourism as a place of work
Implementing workplace literacy and essential skills training

The first report in the series, Bottom Line: Labour Challenges Threaten Tourism’s Growth, shows that spending on tourism goods and services in Canada could rise from $167 billion in 2010 to more than $287 billion in 2035. That spending will cause the demand for labour to grow 41 per cent, from 1.6 million jobs in 2010 to 2.29 million jobs in 2035.

With labour supply expected to grow only 25 per cent during the same period, 240,000 jobs would remain unfilled, stifling growth and impacting service in a globally competitive sector.

The new report shows that action can be taken to mitigate this scenario. In fact, it shows that some stakeholders are already implementing actions that will reduce the shortage—although work remains to fill the outstanding jobs that will be created by growing demand.

The national summary additionally looks at the potential effect of meeting the Government of Canada’s growth targets for international tourist arrivals, contained in the new Tourism Vision.