B.C.’s tourism industry could feel the effects of a labour shortage as early as next year, according to the industry’s human resources association.
In a report released Thursday, go2hr noted that while tourism expects growth of about 100,000 jobs between now and 2020, there could be as many as 14,000 positions going unfilled across the industry starting next year.
In an interview, Arlene Keis, CEO of go2hr, said the expected growth in tourism, an aging population, fewer younger people coming through the ranks and competition for workers with other industries like the booming resource sector means there will be holes to fill around the province.
“Now is the time to start ringing the alarm bells that shortages are coming back,” said Keis, noting the industry had a taste of it between 2006 and 2008. “We did see some panic. Business was affected by the labour shortage. People were shutting down early, some operations closing.”
And that could happen again very soon, Keis said. She noted it will start in the more remote regions but eventually will spread to the metro areas of Victoria and Vancouver.
Tourism consultant Frank Bourree said it’s already having an effect in places like Tofino and Whistler, but it won’t be long before Victoria’s tourism industry feels the effects.
“In Victoria, we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Canada and it won’t take much for that to be a problem for the tourism sector,” he said.
Bourree said any uptick in tourism growth, which will translate into an increased demand for workers, will start to expose the lack of available labour. He said few employers took meaningful steps to address the shortage after the last brush with labour shortages.
“We were facing a structural labour shortage in 2008 and that became quite severe in many communities around the province,” he said.
Only the recession that soon followed relieved some of the labour pressure, he said. “With that, employers were less concerned about it. But because of demographics, it’s coming back now.”
Both Bourree and Keis point out most tourism operators are often too busy just keeping their operations running and profitable to be worried about the big picture.
“A lot of them are short-sighted and focus on the fire they have to put out today and not planning ahead,” said Bourree. “The industry really needs to commit more time and money to training, recruitment and development to deal with succession issues.”
Go2hr started that process last year when it launched the Tourism Labour Market Strategy to identify steps the industry could take to address the impending labour shortage.
What it came up with was a series of initiatives that included developing career awareness and recruitment campaigns to highlight job opportunities, tapping into under-represented talent pools like older workers, aboriginal people, new immigrants, and persons with disabilities, and establishing accessible and affordable training options in remote and rural areas of the province.
“It’s tough and going to get tougher,” said Keis. “From a sheer numbers perspective, there’s not enough people to go around.”
Butchart Gardens knows that only too well.
One of the largest employers in the tourism industry — it employs as many as 600 people at peak times — even the venerable gardens have had to work hard on recruitment and being competitive in order to retain good staff.
Butchart general manager Dave Cowen said retention has been top of mind for years and the gardens boasts some employees who have been on staff for 55 years.
“Butchart has always been looking for the best quality people. We have never had less than hundreds of applications on file, even in 2006,” he said. “But in terms of quality of people, we always try to ensure the highest calibre possible.”
Cowen, who is also chairman of Tourism Victoria, said the industry has learned lessons from the labour problems of 2006-08 and knows it has to work hard to establish itself as an attractive option for young workers.
“It’s somewhat frustrating there’s that perception of the industry [as one dominated by low-paying entry level positions], because there are lots of family-sustaining jobs across the sector,” he said. “It’s also an important gateway into the employment market for students and young workers.”
