Narayan AmmachchiAn economic growth advisory council within Canada’s government has urged the country to expand and re-skill its talent pool, saying there is an urgent need to reduce a talent shortfall for high-growth companies.
The recommendation comes hours after the council’s chief Dominic Barton warned at a conference of university students that automation would most likely destroy nearly 40% of existing jobs in Canada over the coming decade.
Job loss is expected to widen the income gap further, so the invigoration of the talent pool through ‘a focused innovation talent strategy’ is the only way to confront income inequality, reported The Canadian Press, citing Barton.
“Canada must respond to the monumental shifts occurring throughout the global labor market,” the council said in a series of recommendation made to the government this week.
The council has also advised the government to loosen its immigration laws and absorb more talent from foreign countries, besides persuading it to bolster ties with emerging economies such as India and China.
Reports say the the Liberal government is widely expected to incorporate at least some of the council’s suggestions into a budget plan, which will be tabled in the coming weeks.
As for re-skilling the talent pool, the council has suggested formation of FutureSkills Lab, which will co-fund innovative approaches to skill development, in addition to identifying and disseminating new sources of information about industry skills.
“Advances in automation and digitization, combined with continued forces of globalization, are leading to fluid and mobile labor markets where employers’ skills requirements evolve quickly and workers transition between jobs and industries more often than they did in the past,” the council stated.
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