2.5.2. Skilled Labour Needs of Canadian Industries

In the late 1970's, the Economic Council of Canada carried out a Human Resources Survey. One of the objectives of this survey was to outline the dimensions of skill shortages in Canada and to seek information from the companies surveyed about their efforts to provide the skills needed in both the present and future. An important finding of the survey was that when skill shortages were considered by industrial sector, shortages of skilled workers were most prevalent in mining and manufacturing. The Human Resources Survey found that, for five trades, shortages were cited more often than for any other occupation in the labour market. These five trades were: machinery mechanics, machinists, motor vehicle mechanics, welders, and tool and die makers. ¹⁰

In 1979, the Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association of Canada reported that 86 percent of its member companies were experiencing difficulties in obtaining journeymen. "At the top of the list of trades in demand were machinists and fitters/millwrights. Seventy percent of the 'hard-to-fill' vacancies involved the electrical, millwright, heavy duty mechanic, welder, and diesel mechanic trades." ¹¹

When considered by occupation, the greatest shortage of skills was found to be in processing occupations and, to a lesser degree, in managerial and professional positions. Processing occupations are those which are involved with "machining, product fabricating, and repairing and a variety of other tasks associated with transforming raw materials into semi-finished and finished goods."¹² Within the processing occupations, the critical shortages are within the skilled manufacturing trades. Within the managerial and professional occupations, the skill shortages are most critical in the scientific and engineering fields (see Table 2-11).

Both the Dodge Report (1981) and the Allmond Task Force Report (1981), background reports for the federal government's National Training Program, re-iterated the findings of the Human Resources Survey. The Allmond Report added nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy to its list of occupations with critical skill shortages.

At least three observations can be made from the above articulation of skill shortages in the Canadian economy. First, the majority of the occupations which are perceived as having a shortage of skilled workers are technical and, therefore, traditionally male-dominated occupations. Second, basic science skills, especially in mathematics and physics, are necessary for the acquisition of the specific skills in many of these technical occupations. Third, a (functional) prerequisite for the attainment of these basic science skills is the prior attainment of at least functional literacy skills.