UM Todaylabour shortage – UM Today

The Brandon Sun: Economist shares mixed impact of lower Inflation

Fiona Odlum — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 20:51:01 +0000

As Canada’s inflation rate drops to its lowest level since February 2021, the effect on rural communities remains uncertain, economist Rosa Sanchez said.

Canada’s annual inflation rate fell from 2.5 per cent in July to reach the lowest level since February 2021. In Manitoba, inflation dropped to 1.3 per cent in August from 1.8 per cent in July, one of the lowest rates in the country.

Statistics Canada’s consumer price index report for Tuesday said the slowdown can be attributed in part to lower gasoline prices.

To read the full story, please visit The Brandon Sun.

Winnipeg Free Press: Employee engagement plan, No easy answers to ongoing labour shortage issues but retention is key, HR experts say

Fiona Odlum — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 20:15:24 +0000

“I think sometimes, we’re looking for an easy answer, an easy solution that we can put into a sound bite and I don’t think that’s there,” Wallis said.

Adam King, assistant professor in the labour studies program at the University of Manitoba, said the COVID-19 pandemic has radically shifted how employers hire and how potential employees view jobs.

“Post-pandemic, for the first time, employers are having to compete for workers rather than the other way around,” he said.

To read the full story, please visit the Winnipeg Free Press.

CityNews: Oh, you thought Canada’s labour market was good?! Sorry.

Fiona Odlum — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 19:35:10 +0000

In today’s The Big Story podcast, for a solid couple of years, as the economy recovered from the pandemic, the narrative when discussing labour in this country was that the market was “tight” or there was a “labour shortage.” Unemployment approached record lows, and companies were scrambling to hire and keep talent.

Some of that was true. But not everywhere, and it wasn’t the whole story. And also, however tight the labour market was, it isn’t anymore. Beyond the top-line unemployment number, there were always signs that workers weren’t actually benefitting all that much from how in-demand they were.

Adam D.K. King is an assistant professor in the labour studies program at the University of Manitoba. He wrote a piece on unemployment in The Maple. “It’s probably worse news than we are recognizing because [the unemployment rate is] not counting all these other people that are negatively affected. Another thing to keep in mind too is that anytime you see unemployment officially rise, there are segments of the labor force that suffer first and worst. Those tend to be racialized workers, those tend to be new immigrants, new Canadians,” said King.

To listen to this podcast, please visit CityNews.