A decade away from running out of labour
N.S. urged to have action plan on aging, shrinking workforce
By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter

The intelligent and strategic use of our education system is the key to bringing the skills of Canada’s workforce to a level at which it can compete in a rapidly changing global economy, says Warren Jestin, chief economist with Scotiabank.

"We’ve got to take our educational infrastructure and use it effectively to bring our skills level up," Mr. Jestin said in an interview in Halifax on Wednesday during Nova-Knowledge’s 2006 Knowledge Economy Summit, where he was keynote speaker.

"I’ve been travelling the country and, everywhere, skills shortages and matching skills to what is actually available is the issue. To attract jobs in, to attract population in, we’re inevitably going to have to spend a lot more on the educational infrastructure."

The importance of education, both formal and ongoing, was a key element of the 2006 NovaKnowledge Report Card.

The report focused on what’s needed for Nova Scotia’s workforce, which is aging and shrinking to such a point that the province will run out of labour to meet demand by 2016 if nothing is done, according to retired Dalhousie University professor James McNiven, who took part in a summit panel.

"Nova Scotia’s workforce actually declined last year by 1,725 participants," said Jeff Somerville, a director of Grant Thornton LLP and chairman of this year’s report card committee. "Our birth rate continues to decline, and the gap between the number of workers and retirees is closing."

Nova Scotia has the oldest population in the country, and Mr. Somerville said pension income as a percentage of total income in the province has risen to more than 20 per cent today from eight per cent in 1980. That figure is expected to increase to more than 40 per cent by 2030.

"The face of our province will change dramatically unless we are able to recruit and retain new talent," he said, noting that Nova Scotia has failed to attract immigrants and to retain students, domestic and foreign, who graduate from its universities and colleges.

"We educate far more students than we keep, whether they are originally from Nova Scotia or not," he said, adding that 70 per cent of the jobs being created in today’s economy require post-secondary training, but 58 per cent of Nova Scotia high school graduates go directly into the workforce.

"These are important issues for us to consider, and in five years’ time they will be critical."

NovaKnowledge recommends that government, business and the education system develop strategies like providing student debt relief to keep young people in the province; increasing awareness of the need for competitive salaries to attract and keep skilled and educated workers; fostering workplaces that encourage older workers’ participation; promoting more workforce involvement of women, the underemployed and immigrants; building on the province’s leadership in workplace education; setting guidelines, as Quebec and in Scandinavia have, of two per cent of corporate revenues directed to training; and creating measures to make universities and colleges more accountable for their graduates’ employability.

NovaKnowledge executive director Tim Outhit said the recommendations are ambitious but realistic.

"We are going to simply have to pay people more to keep them here; we’re going to have to train them more to keep them up to date; we’re going to have to bring in innovation; and we’re going to have to try and keep people in the workforce longer by doing the ongoing training," Mr. Outhit said.

NovaKnowledge is a non-profit organization that promotes the development of a sustainable knowledge-based economy in the province.

( berskine@herald.ca)

Copyright © 2006 The Halifax Herald Limited