Last week I wrote a story about how fashion giant Aritzia was looking to fill jobs at its New Westminster distribution centre for the fall-winter season.
The way it went about it said a lot about the current state of the labour market. Aritzia is offering far above minimum wage ($21 an hour), free daily coffee and meals served on site, plus such things as showers and bike storage for cyclists.
They called it “best-in-class perks.”
The message was clear to young workers – we’re trying to go above and beyond to lure you.
That’s because so many employers in Burnaby and beyond are struggling to find workers.
A report released Wednesday provides additional evidence, with more than 60 per cent of Canadian businesses saying that widespread “labour shortages” are limiting their growth.
The report, produced by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), combines the findings of two surveys — one that polled 1,251 Canadian entrepreneurs in May 2021 and a survey of 3,000 Canadian employees conducted in June 2021. Its findings suggest 49 per cent of business owners have had to delay or have been unable to deliver orders to clients due to a lack of labour.
It also says many small- and medium-sized business owners report job vacancies sitting empty for three or four months at a time, with 61 per cent saying they've had to increase their own hours or their employees' work hours as a result.
“It’s very serious, because it’s slowing down the growth of many businesses in Canada, and as a result is going to slow down the growth of the economy,” said Pierre Cléroux, BDC’s chief economist.
OK, that is obviously true, but should it really be called a “labour shortage” or should it be called a “surplus of crappy jobs that people don’t want”?
Right now we’re seeing a reckoning with many service industry jobs that are known for poor pay, long hours, unreliable shifts and, perhaps most importantly, terrible working conditions. Trying to blame the situation on government pandemic benefits it too simplistic. For many servers that I have spoken with, the pandemic was just the last straw that had them reassessing what they wanted to do with their lives.
I mean it doesn’t take Gordon Ramsey to tell you that many people who work in kitchens and out on the floor are tired of being treated poorly by abusive managers.
Many people are fed up with getting yelled at by managers and customers. From what I’ve been told, the abuse from customers is even worse than before the pandemic.
So, now you have more people being more selective about where they’re going to work. Hopefully this leads to more companies setting new standards for how workers are treated (like consistent shifts).
The numbers don’t lie. Change is needed.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
