An annual business survey has found employers hired more people than they let go in 2018, which may indicate some employers are beginning to find the right people for open jobs, according to the leader of the Chatham-Kent Workforce Planning Board.
Project manager Kristy Jacobs said while the businesses that responded to the Employer One Survey had a growth of 1,032 employees, the results only reflect those employers.
“We’re just looking at a snapshot of those businesses,” she said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s indicative of what’s happening across Chatham-Kent, but it does seem to be trending that way, so that’s really awesome that we’re in a position that things are growing.”
Many business and government officials over the past few years have said there are plenty of jobs available, but the people with the skills for these jobs are not in Chatham-Kent.
However, Jacobs said she thinks these results show businesses are able to fill at least some positions. In all, 3,101 people were hired, but 2,069 people left a job.
Other results from the survey show there are still positions which employers have trouble filling, with 117 employers out of the 282 who completed the survey experiencing this issue.
“It means they had at least one position that was vacant for six months or more that they weren’t able to find a candidate for,” said Jacobs. “There are lots of hires happening, but there are still some of those positions that they’re struggling with.”
The survey also looks at the ways employers search for workers. The top answers were word of mouth at 78 per cent, social media at 47 per cent, the company’s website at 42 per cent and government employment centres or websites at 28 per cent.
As well, the results showed most of the hiring efforts are focused on local searches, with some searching across the province and few looking nation-wide or internationally.
Jacobs said adjusting these efforts, such as moving away from word of mouth, may be a way to fill open positions.
“It’s something that’s worked in the past, but we’re not necessarily having people out and about driving by a business anymore, especially off the beaten path,” she said.
There is promotion work being done by the Municipality of Chatham-Kent resident attraction and retention department on promoting Chatham-Kent outside of the region, said Jacobs.
“A lot of employers are worried about going outside of the area for that reason to not have someone stay,” she said. “With all of the amenities that we have, I think people will stay.”
According to the survey, 193 of the new hires last year were from outside Chatham-Kent.
Jacobs said this is the highest number they’ve had in this category since the survey was first issued five years ago.
“I’m not sure if it’s because people are more aware of where their hires are coming from, or whether it’s some of these targeted efforts that have been happening with employers going outside to search,” she said.
With five years of data, Jacobs said the planning board will do a “deeper analysis” of the trends they’ve recorded.
An area she said she’ll be looking at is how the soft skills training programs, which were made available by the board in the third year, have impacted the responses.
The survey had its highest number of responses last year, with two more employers than this year.
“We’re hitting what is statistically known as ‘survey fatigue,’” she said. “It’s a big survey. When people are doing it every year, that’s a lot of data to do every year.”
The planning board will consider having the large survey every five years and having more focused questions in the interim years, she said.
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