As we slowly emerge from the pandemic, both employers and job seekers in the greater Kawarthas region are facing new challenges — and the Workforce Development Board (WDB) is here to help.
Founded in 1996, WDB is a not-for-profit organization located in Peterborough and funded by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development. WDB provides labour market information, coordinates employment and training services, and engages employer communities across Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton.
“What we’re seeing with the pandemic is something that hasn’t been seen before in terms of shifts in behaviour,” says Sean Dooley, WDB’s Labour Market Information Analyst. “Working remotely changed a lot of people’s outsets. People were able to step back — they took the time to reflect where they stood in the labour market. Some were able to retire a little early. Some pulled out. Some saw new training or new education as a path forward. It has been an interesting time.”
A report released in February of this year by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario confirmed that pandemic-related workplace shutdowns led to “an unparalleled disruption in Ontario’s labour market” — a sobering affirmation anchored in the stark reality of the loss of 355,300 jobs in 2020, Ontario’s largest ever annual loss of employment.
“The pandemic has exacerbated some of the trends we were already seeing, whether that’s in specific occupations that require certain skill sets or even just filling general labour-type positions,” Dooley explains.
That view is shared by representatives of employment service agencies and economic development organizations across the greater Kawarthas region, who rely on the data provided by WDB to gauge the state of the local labour market and determine what supports both employers and job seekers need.
“I’ve been in this field for 27 years and I don’t think I have ever had an experience where we’ve seen such an abundance of job opportunities and what feels like an absence of job seekers that are ready to go,” says Brenda Roxburgh, executive director of Victoria County Career Services (VCCS) in Lindsay.
“There’s a cycle that hasn’t settled yet and I don’t think it will until we see ourselves a little further along the recovery process. I don’t really expect it to go back to where it was. This is a real opportunity to start looking at how people work. People that are still nervous, but they’re thinking maybe this is the time to look for something different.”
According to Roxburgh, WDB provides VCCS with a “snapshot” of the local labour market that her organization might not otherwise see on their own.
“We depend on WDB in terms of the labour market information it pulls together,” she says. “That real-time information helps us understand what we can do with our existing programming to shift and pivot, so that we can meet the needs of job seekers and employers at the same time.”
Dan Borowec, director of economic development and tourism for Northumberland Economic Development, is seeing very much the same in Northumberland County.
“Whether it’s manufacturing or hospitality or retail, all employers are facing the challenge of availability of workforce,” Borowec says. “In some cases, individuals are reassessing what they want to do. The workforce has had time to think about things and is now being particular.”
That makes the services provided by WDB, according to Borowec, very much “in demand” on the part of employers.
“The work WDB is doing in providing labour market information is a tremendous assist to employers in the area, and those services don’t cost anything,” he adds.
In the Peterborough area, the same shift in the labour market has seen local employers struggling to fill positions. According to Rhonda Keenan, president and CEO of Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development, the shift is changing how employers recruit workers.
“Businesses are looking at how to be an employer of choice,” Keenan observes. “They know how important workers are, so they are asking themselves how they can create the most competitive space to get access to the best talent.”
The impact of the pandemic, according to Keenan, has also caused workers to revaluate their previous career choices, with some deciding to retrain for another type of job.
As with other economic development organizations in the greater Kawarthas region, Keenan calls WDB “a critical partner”.
“WDB provides us with the data that allows us to make the connections between the context of what the businesses are telling us and what the data is showing,” she explains. “How do we build a program that’s actually responding to the real problem? We need data to do that and that’s why WDB is so valuable to us.”
For Amanda Conn, executive director of the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce, the shortage of applicants for available jobs has brought with it some unique scenarios, including employers offering incentives to attract workers from their existing jobs.
“That doesn’t help the problem,” she says. “You just have people moving around.”
Barriers to employment in her region, says Conn, were already a roadblock well before the pandemic. She cites the lack of affordable housing and a public transportation system, as well as sometimes less-than-reliable digital infrastructure that makes working from home difficult, as examples.
WDB’s value, according to Conn, lies in providing information to employers that is both local and relevant.
“Any business can go to WDB and ask for a salary review and that will be provided for their area. What is someone with that job title earning? Employers can then ensure their postings are competitive and they’re going to be seen as a result. That’s a really valuable resource.”
Among the other valuable resources provided by WDB are regular job demand and job search reports posted on WDB’s website at www.wdb.ca.
WDB also offers its Labour Market Information (LMI) Help Desk at www.wdb.ca/lmi-help-desk/, which answers any and all questions from employers and community stakeholders looking to better understand the current labour market and associated trends, as well as queries for job seekers making employment or career decisions.
“We have a good cross-section of people who ask questions,” says WDB’s Labour Market Information Analyst Sean Dooley. “We hear from students and job seekers, we hear from employers, and we hear from our local school boards. Our economic development partners also use it quite extensively.”
While provincial and national labour market information is available to the public from Statistics Canada, Dooley explains, it can be confusing for the average person to sort through large amounts of data and especially challenging to find information specific to a local community.
“We do our best to visualize the data involved and put it in the larger perspective of the labour market so a layperson can understand what the data means,” Dooley says. “Sometimes that’s not always clear when you’re reading research reports and looking at long data tables. We do our best to make it easy to understand.”
LMI Help Desk staff consult with the person making the request to determine what decision they are trying to make and what data they actually need to help them make an informed decision, and then provide them with a single PDF report in an easy-to-understand and digestible format.
Another popular WDB service is the Local Jobs Hub at www.wdb.ca/jobs/, which automatically aggregates job listings for Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, Haliburton, and Muskoka from more than 35 online job boards. Job seekers can filter listings by key criteria, including skill level and type, part-time or full-time jobs, and whether a job is temporary, contract, or permanent.
An interactive regional map at www.wdb.ca/map/ also cross-references job postings with nearby bus routes, cycle routes, schools, childcare centres, and more.
“The Local Jobs Hub is a huge time saver,” Dooley says. “We pull from over 35 different job boards, including local ones you might not be aware of or may not check as often. We put all the job listings in one place so you can be more confident you’re seeing all the actual opportunities that are out there.”
The Local Jobs Hub also provides WDB with a wealth of employment-related data, including trends in different sectors and the top skills in demand by employers that is invaluable for both employment agencies and economic development agencies across Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, Haliburton, and Muskoka.
“For WDB, it’s really about being able to be the conduit that brings some of these organizations together,” Dooley says.
“A lot of times people are caught up in their own work and it’s hard to look at the bigger picture. That’s where we can step in and connect different agencies and different partners to initiate projects.”
For more information about WDB, including all the available resources for employers and job seekers, visit www.wdb.ca.
This story was created in partnership with the Workforce Development Board.
