HELP WANTED: Tight job market leaves thousands of trade jobs waiting to be had

It is her dream job.

Pandora Gosselbauer says welding was the obvious choice for her when she finished high school just over a year ago.

“I had a really good feeling about welding. It looked like so much fun,” said the 19-year-old apprentice who is embarking on a career in a trade that is in demand.

Like most students at the end of high school, she was faced with a life-shaping decision.

“I did feel a lot of pressure from my high school to go to university. And I was the only one from my graduating class that I know of that attended a trades program right out of high school,” Gooselbauer said.

Jumping in that direction has led her to an apprenticeship at a metal fabrication shop.

That is where she has just begun to put in 5,400 hours — which will include 720 hours at George Brown College — on her way to career similar to her father’s.

“I asked my dad who is a blacksmith to take me to his shop and show me how to weld,” she said.

“So I did that — and it was love at first spark.”

Her job as a welder is one of many trades that builders, colleges, trade unions, and the provincial government say face a labour-shortage.

With infrastructure and an increase in housing major priorities for all levels of government, the dearth of adequate labour comes at the worst time.

It risks hampering the economy if it is not addressed, according to the Dean of the Centre for Construction and Engineering at George Brown College.

“The province is seeing that there is a big gap in the skill trades. This is why we need more skilled people in the market to fill that gap,” said Dr. Adel Esayed. “Otherwise, in five to seven years the province will struggle.”

The pandemic caused a lull in enrollment in some college programs due to exclusively remote learning.

Dr. Esayed said it is now beginning to bounce back.

But he said the trades still face a different, psychological barrier.

“There is a misconception in the community that the trades are the last resort for students. If they can’t go to university then they go to college and the trades. And that is not the case,” said Dr. Esayed.

“The trades are a talent. Not everybody has this talent.”

For years, Kai Raba was convinced his talent was working in restaurant kitchens.

He did that for almost a decade.

Then the pandemic up-ended hospitality and the restaurant industry – where Raba said he was “underpayed and overworked.”

So the 32-year-old made a dramatic career switch.

“COVID kind of opened my eyes to low wage jobs being not the greatest,” he said.

He dropped the kitchen tongs for a welding torch — and enrolled in a welding program at George Brown — a professional reinvention.

His first day as an apprentice was at a sheet metal factory.

“This is a lot different. It’s nice to have work that pays you well and it goes up each year,” he said.

Kadeem Campbell watched his father make a good living in a trade.

“My dad was a carpenter and as I was growing up I saw how hard he worked,” he said.

“At first I really didn’t want to be a carpenter because as a young kid I wanted to choose my own path.”

Despite his initial desire to avoid following in his fathers footsteps, Campbell is now working as an apprentice on a major office tower in downtown Toronto.

“As an apprentice our job is to just in-take all that we can – everyday – just learn more and more about the trade,” Campbell said.

Like Gosselbauer, Campbell realized he could build a career out of something he was eventually drawn to.

“When I was in school I was maybe going to do engineering or go to university. But I realized that with carpentry — as soon as you start working, you start making money and you start learning,” he said on a quick break at the office tower he is helping to build.

In April, Ontario government figures showed over 304,000 jobs going unfilled in the province, at the end of 2021.

More than 20,600 of them were in the construction sector.

It also said data suggests the need to replace retiring workers is high in the skilled trades.

In 2016, nearly one in three journeypersons were aged 55 years or older.

Gosselbauer is hoping to take advantage of the impending generational change and wave of retirements.

She still has a ways to go alternating between on-the-job experience and class-room learning.

“I kind of always knew that a desk job wasn’t for me. So I always knew I would go into a trade of some sort.”

As construction booms, available workers lag

Hardly a week goes by without one industry or another decrying the struggle to find workers.

The job market is flush.

Available workers, not so much.

Construction and the trades are no exception.

And it comes at a time when building is booming in Toronto and the GTA.

Ricardo Brown, who has worked his way up over eight years in trades to become an assistant site-superintendent, says he notices the shortage every week.

“There is a shortage in the trades. Some trades more than others,” said Brown. “I think electricians are one of those trades that are saturated. But, in contrast, masonry is almost a dying trade unfortunately. Another one is plaster. We need people with the intelligence and the understanding or education of some of these trades.”

Brown first began in welding, then switched into carpentry.

He says having multiple skills gave him upward mobility.

The need to fill jobs like his is clearly great.

The latest employment report from Statistics Canada shows construction hiring surging.

“The number of people working in construction grew by 23,000 with Ontario (+19,000 jobs) accounting for the majority of the increase. This increase recouped losses observed over the previous two months,” the agency reported.

“On a year-over-year basis, employment in construction grew at a faster pace (+118,000 jobs) than most other industries.”

Both the province and the federal government have made promises to significantly increase home construction over the next ten years.

It is recognized that all the work — along with large infrastructure projects like highways and hospitals — will require an expanded workforce.

In April, the Ontario government announced an investment of over $11.6 million in two projects to help nearly 1,500 apprentices and journeypersons upgrade their skills in plumbing, steam fitting, welding, sprinkler fitting, and refrigeration trades.

“Across Ontario, businesses continue to see a shortage of skilled workers needed to build our province,” said Monte McNaughton, who at that time was Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development.

“These projects will help 1,500 hard-working men and women take the next step in their careers so they can earn more take-home pay, provide for their families, and build stronger communities for us all.”

Brown is hoping more people recognize the opportunity.

“If we don’t have the trades going, you don’t get buildings, we don’t get what we want,” he said, noting that “some people unfortunately look down on the trades. But once they get in it they see it is not a cakewalk and it is very rewarding.”

slaurie@postmedia.com
Twitter: @_ScottLaurie