EMPLOYING FOREIGN WORKERS: THE CHANGE IN BC’S LABOUR MARKETS

What is the Forecast for British Columbia’s Labour Market to 2020 ?

Between 2010 and 2020 demand for workers in BC is expected to grow by an annual average rate of 1.4 percent; with over 1 million job openings expected in that period.  Due to this growth rate it is expected that by 2016 the number of workers needed, will exceed the number available province wide.  In fact, by 2020, it is projected that supply will outgrow demand by 61,500 workers.

 

And this trend is likely to be experienced even sooner in some regions. The Northeast region is expected to have the highest growth in demand for workers at 1.7 percent annually, followed by Mainland/ Southwest (1.6 percent) and North Coast and Nechako (1.3 percent).

 

Nearly two-thirds of these projected job openings (676,400) will be due to replacement demand, such as workers retiring and deaths. The remaining third will be new jobs (351,000) that result from the region’s economic growth.

 

In BC, the number of new labour market entrants (those who leave the education system and enter the labour market for the first time) is expected to decline steadily throughout the period of 2010 to 2020. This reflects a broader demographic shift to an older population.  As a result, the B.C. labour market will rely increasingly on migrants for new labour supply. In fact it is forecasted that new migrants to B.C. are projected to fill one-third of job openings to 2020.

Thinking of Employing a Foreign Worker?

Finding the right staff for your small business can often be a challenge, especially if you operate in an industry which is experiencing a skills shortage, such as tourism or construction.

 

The BC Provincial Nominee Program (“BC PNP”) operates under an agreement between the federal and provincial governments and was designed to help address these shortages.

The program has two streams:

 

• Strategic Occupations: Helps employers in BC recruit or retain qualified foreign workers to meet current and projected labour market needs.
   
• Business: Targets entrepreneurs who plan to invest in and actively manage a business within BC that will provide economic benefits to the province.

Foreign nationals who are selected by the program become eligible to make an application for permanent residence to the federal government in a special immigration category that will be processed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada on a priority basis.