High housing and childcare costs and the inability to hire foreign workers despite longstanding staffing vacancies are among the factors that contribute to the difficulty Thompson businesses have finding and retaining workers, a virtual Thompson Chamber of Commerce meeting heard Jan. 19.
Ethel Timbang, manager of the Best Western Hotel & Suites in Thompson, delivered a presentation to other chamber members highlighting some of the issues local business owners face.
For some workers, high housing and childcare costs can sabotage their employment aspirations.
Since workers in lower-wage jobs can’t usually afford an apartment on their own, they often live with roommates and if their roommate loses their job and can’t pay rent, people are sometimes forced to resign and move back to their home communities.
“He cannot live alone and not have a shared home because of high rent,” Timbang said.
Similarly, the cost of childcare makes many single parents, particularly women, decide that it isn’t worth it to work.
“It’s as if when they work, they will be just be working for their childcare,” Timbang said.
Government policies can also impact businesses’ ability to find and retain staff. During the COVID-19 pandemic, government payments like CERB and lower employment insurance thresholds made it tough for businesses like Best Western, which pays more than minimum wage but has starting salaries usually below $15 per hour, to entice people to work for them.
“There are people that still need workers and cannot compete with the government with regards to salary,” she said. “I felt very frustrated because it’s as if the government is our competition.”
Regulations around the temporary foreign worker program, which many businesses cannot even contemplate because of the upfront costs for labour market assessments and flights from overseas, prevent even those in Thompson who do have the financial means from applying, because approval depends on provincial unemployment rates. Regional rates in the north are often below the cutoff for temporary worker eligibility.
“We have federal programs that we can use but it’s not working for us,” Timbang said.
Other barriers to employment include poor workforce readiness among some applicants, who do not know how to properly write a resume or cover letter or how to dress for a job interview.
When someone is hired, it can cost a lot to train them and they may leave for a different job after only a few months because there are so many vacant positions.
“Staffing issues are hurting businesses here in town,” said Timbang.
Possible long-term solutions to local labour woes include more affordable housing and childcare and high school curriculum changes to produce graduates ready for job-hunting and employment.
During the question and answer session following the presentation, Raj Thethy says the chamber should be advocating for members to various levels of government.
“We should be taking things up with the school board and expressing our concerns to them,” about high school graduates’ job readiness, he said.
He also pointed to a common belief in Thompson that the city has more than the 13,000 or so residents counted in the census.
“That’s something we should take up with the city, trying to get the census corrected,” he said. ‘That would give us better statistics to confront our federal government.”
Thethy also said that the distance between northern communities prevents Thompson, which doesn’t have enough workers, from attracting applicants living in places where few jobs are available.
“Nobody’s going to drive 75 kilometres to come to work here,” he said, noting that many small businesses tend to pay just above the minimum wage.
Mike Lawson says he deals with many people in his job who can’t find local workers or bring in foreign ones either.
“It’s tough sledding right now,” he said.
