At Home: Ageing workforce will boost economy

With nearly 370,000 Canadian jobs lost since last October, some analysts are calling for a slow economic recovery. Others, however, are predicting a surplus of jobs in the next decade?mostly due to the ageing population. In fact, some industries are already feeling the lack of a skilled workforce as record numbers of Baby Boomers get set to retire.

As the National Post reports, some 30 per cent of recent job cuts ?have been in the construction sector.? However, the Construction Sector Council estimates that 317,000 skilled workers will be needed between now and 2017. More than half of those workers, roughly 168,000, will be needed to replace retiring Baby Boomers.

The mining sector anticipates a shortage of skilled workers as well, with approximately 70,000 workers needed by 2014 as nearly half of the sector’s workers will retire by then.

Losses in equities and real estate may force some older workers to stay on the job a little longer than planned, but it will be a temporary delay in the workplace shortage.

Roger Sauvé, president of People Patterns Consulting, told reporters, ?If we have a normal type of recovery, in about three to four years the demographic situation will lead to massive shortages.? The situation is expected to ?intensify over the next 15 to 20 years.?

In spite of the warnings, a 2008 survey by the Conference Board of Canada indicates that a mere 6 per cent of employers are preparing for the shortage by ?making efforts to hold on to mature workers.?

In Foreign News: Japanese city issued warning over dolphin slaughter

The Australian town of Broome has issued a warning to its sister city of Taiji, Japan: end the slaughter of dolphins or the relationship is over. Broome, on Australia’s west coast, has been twinned with Taiji for 28 years. The friendly ties between the two cities reach back almost 100 years, since the days when Taiji residents helped get the Aussie town’s pearl industry started.

The yearly dolphin slaughter has become a contentious issue, though, and Broome’s local council voted unanimously to put its sister city on warning, according to The Japan Times. Graeme Campbell, Broome council head, told reporters that ?the council respectfully advises . . . Taiji that it will be unable to fulfill its pledge as a sister town of Taiji while the practice of harvesting dolphins exists.?

Other groups have been critical of Taiji’s dolphin slaughters as well, including anti-whaling organizations, and the Broome council notes that they have been subject to ?social and economic sanctions? because of the close relationship with Taiji.

Taiji’s dolphin catch is sold to restaurants and aquariums. Part of Broom council’s resolve is to help Taiji develop other economic opportunities to replace those lost if the dolphin slaughter ends.