N.L. businesses say they're still struggling to fill jobs. Experts say there's a simple solution

Some businesses in Newfoundland and Labrador are still struggling to fill the jobs they're offering, despite having access to arelatively untapped demographic resource: retirees looking to rejoin the workforce.

Louis-Philippe Gauthier, Atlantic vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, saysa labour shortage still grips Atlantic Canada over three years after the COVID-19pandemic first disrupted the workforce.

More than 110,000 members of the CFIB small- and mid-sized business owners are collecting data on the ongoing shortage, and they're finding a tight labour market across the board,Gauthier said Thursday.

"Employers are putting up help wanted ads and posting job postings, and the number of job applicants is either very, very low or there's an element of mismatch between what the employees are offering for skills or what the business is looking for," he said.

"So essentially they're not able to find the labour that they need, and that basically makes it so that the business can't operate at 100 per cent ability."

Sara Moriarity,interim community organizer with the Workers' Action Network of Newfoundland and Labrador agroup that advocates for better working conditions saysthe labour landscape is changing.

Her group hears from workers every day who haveharassment and discrimination claims, she said.

"Workers are starting to realize that we have the ability to demand better working conditions," Moriaritysaid.

"People abide by basic human instinct. If there's a better opportunity elsewhere, whether that's outside of the province or in the next shop over, workers are going to take that over anything else."

Moriaritysaid some people face multiple challenges when trying to gain employment. Everything from transportation to accessibility especially in rural areas are high on the barrier scale.

Mark Brockway, owner ofBrockway's Restaurant in Corner Brook, is seeing the problem first-hand.

Brockway saidhe's paying his staff more than minimum wage butit's still getting difficultto retain staff members forhis kitchen.

"A lot of people don't want to work in the industry anymore. The food industry is definitely losing its workers," he said.

"Teenagers, junior high to high school and late teens, are not really jumping into the food industry like they used to."

Staffing shortages poseother problems, too;Brockway said the extra stress falls to the employees who are tasked with picking up the slack.

"So you have a risk of losing them as well, which is a big factor," he said. "I've seen that time and time again, where a kitchen hollows out in a matter of a month and trying to replace that skill of cooking and being in a fast-paced environment is very difficult."

Filling the gaps

Newfoundland and Labrador has been focusing on immigration and permanent residency to address its population decline. The influx of new people means an influx of new workers.

However, one local group that is willing to chip in and lighten the loadisn't getting that opportunity on the large scale.

In December,the province'sseniors' advocate, Susan Walsh, saidroughly 43,000 people of retirement agein Newfoundland and Labrador are looking for work.

"A number of seniors have a lot of education. Others have great work ethics. They just want to give back. They want to continue in the workforce," Walsh told CBC News at the time.

Gauthier said that workforce is a "definite necessity" tocombat the ongoing labour shortage.

"I know in other provinces in Atlantic Canada, specifically in New Brunswick, there are areas where there are pilot projects where the provincial government is supporting not only the employee, but the business, to help the older workforce reintegratewith a lot of flexibility," he said.

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