Employment experts say northeastern Ontario continues to experience a labour shortage.
And a job fair was held this week in an effort to help employers and job seekers get together.
Organizers say the theme Exploring Your Options was chosen because of the many career opportunities available in the region.
“There are a lot of opportunities in our community. There's a wide range of opportunities. It goes from highly skilled to lower skilled jobs and employers across all industries, across all sectors, are having a challenge finding workers.” said Julie Joncas, the Executive Director for Far Northeast Training Board.
Employers from all over the region, representing mining, healthcare, retail, and just about everything in between agree. They all participated in the job fair to find qualified workers to fill vacancies.
“Definitely there's a labour shortage. If you look at manual labour, even the operators themselves.” said Glen Bosnick, of Villeneuve Construction.
“We are having a really hard time finding some of the heavy equipment mechanics right now, that have the underground common core to be able to go underground or the people that are interested in working in the underground positions.” said Angela Tremblay, of Tahoe Canada.
Experts blame the shortfall on an aging population and say the community needs to do more to make Timmins an attractive place for outsiders to come and for locals to stay and work.
“Even with all of the students in all of the high schools in the northeast, we wouldn't be able to fill all of the vacancies in the future.” said Michelle Stevens, of Employment Options Ontario.
“The community is struggling right now. We have new businesses that aren't coming to Timmins, even if they want to, because they know they can't find the employees.” said Kelly Torresan, also of Employment Options Ontario.
The Far Northeast Training Board will be hosting another job fair in Cochrane at the end of the month, looking to help employers and job seekers connect.
