Canadian employers are willing to hire workers with no job-related experience due to tightening market conditions, new survey results show. According to the report released on Monday, the level of experience and education — once crucial for many positions — is becoming less important due to labor shortages.
The findings are based on an online survey of 1,000 employers across Canada. This survey was conducted in May by Censuswide on behalf of Indeed, a website specializing in job postings.
The survey found that 77% of Canadian employers see value in hiring a candidate based on their “general” interpersonal skills and attitude toward learning rather than job-related knowledge and skills. specialized”. It also found that four out of five employers would consider hiring candidates who don’t have a job-related degree or certification, and would instead provide on-the-job training to their new workers. The survey indicates that employers are also willing to sacrifice the need for relevant experience in light of the difficulties in finding candidates.
“We’re quite honestly facing one of the tightest labor markets we’ve ever had,” said Michelle Slater, director at Indeed. “There is definitely a labor shortage. Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 5.1% in May, Statistics Canada reported earlier this month. This is the lowest unemployment rate since at least 1976, when comparable data began to be compiled.
The tight labor market is fueled by a strong pandemic recovery and changing demographics. “An aging population and a rapidly growing economy mean that the pool of available skilled workers is quite small,” noted Ms.me Slate. Employers need to be much more creative. »
The survey of Canadian employers was conducted to find out what employers are doing differently to address some of the labor shortages, she explained. The survey found that employers were increasingly willing to hire based on skills such as communication, adaptability and attention to detail, rather than so-called hard skills such as technical knowledge or training.
“Canadian employers care more about what the person can bring to the team in terms of their attitude, rather than the skills they have and bring to their position,” said Ms.me Slate. The results are positive not only for young people leaving school or starting their first job, but also for older workers changing careers, she continued. “This means that people who may not have certain skills on their CV could still have the opportunity to land their dream job. »
With labor shortages affecting all industries, research has found that the most difficult jobs to fill with candidates who have the required skills are positions in IT, project management, engineering, software development and programming.
The survey industry’s trade body, the Canadian Marketing Research and Intelligence Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population. .