Shortage in Skilled Trade Workers, Especially Women
According to a report by the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, a trade and industry association, not only are businesses always looking to hire more workers, but women in particular. “The labour pool is simply too small.”
Women make up only 28% of employees in the manufacturing industry. While this is small, across all the skilled trades, women are a tiny 4.5% of all workers.
“It’s a bit disturbing to see there has been no improvement in women in our labour force in 30 years, so that was just alarming,” said Rhonda Barnet, who chairs the national board of directors at Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.
According to Global News, industry professionals agree that while the proportion of women in the workforce is small, female workers do report high job satisfaction in the field.
A well balanced and diverse workplace has been shown to contribute to business success. Yet it seems that the shortage in women in this field is also related to a small number of women enrolled in skills training for these jobs. Women should be encouraged to pursue education in these fields and apply for jobs. “The report calls on companies and governments to improve their efforts to encourage young girls to seek education in the skilled trades or STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.” According to Global News.
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For more information on the report, read below: