Canada continues to attract British and Irish expats

As Canada struggles to fill job positions within its trade industries the number of British and Irish citizens moving to Canada continues to rise.

With an estimated 114,000 additional trade positions needing to be filled in Alberta by 2021 alone according to the Calgary Economic Development (CED) and too few Canadians to fill all these jobs provincial governments continue to look abroad.

The CED is now twice a year leading delegations of Alberta companies on trans-Atlantic recruitment hunts with the UK and Republic of Ireland proving to be ‘ripe recruiting grounds’ according to the CED’s workforce manager Jeanette Sutherland. She highlighted the fact that the shared language, similar cultures and an abundance of qualified and experienced tradespeople and much higher unemployment rates than Canada (7.6% in the UK and 13.3% in the Republic of Ireland versus 4.4% in Canada) are a ‘win-win’ for them with as ‘we have demand and they have supply’.

Though most people are moving on one-year work permits the Canadian government in January launched the Federal Skilled Trades Programme to speed up the immigration process for in-demand tradespeople looking to get permanent residency.

All this hiring hasn’t gone without controversies with a recent case against HD Mining causing the Canadian government to take steps to protect Canadian jobs. The hiring process now takes 3 to 4 months per person up from 3 to 6 weeks before.

In especially desirable industries such as the oil and gas production Canadian companies currently employers are fighting over employees with sometimes 7 or 8 employers approaching potential employees.

After a drop at the start of the finical crisis the number of British citizens moving on temporary one-year work permits continues to rise:

Read the full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25054229