Communities in the North Fraser region, including Mission, will be bursting with job opportunities over the next decade, according to a Labour Market Partnership study commissioned by Invest North Fraser and funded by the provincial government.
The $111,000 study took six months and laid out labour market opportunities in the agriculture/forestry, tourism, manufacturing, education and advanced technology sectors of the region, which also includes Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.
Some of the keys findings and opportunities were:
• Over the next 10 years, employers in the five industry sectors predict
they will grow by more than 15,000 new employees.
• Over the next 10 years, just under 60 per cent of new hires will require some form of post-secondary education.
• Businesses can focus on three key areas to attract new businesses or to encourage business expansion: employee quality of life, business-friendly government, and accessible and affordable transit.
The study also offered recommendations for workforce attraction, and training and skills development.
Workforce attraction:
• Formalize/maintain a formal group to oversee human resource issues in the region.
• Continue to develop and foster a means for employers to communicate their training needs to the training bodies.
• Consider sector specific targeted recruitment/attraction strategies.
Training and skills development:
• Develop a regional labour force training committee.
• Develop a strategy to attract recent graduates of B.C. post-secondary
institutions.
"The three communities that banded together and took part in this study will benefit for years to come," said Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Marc Dalton. "This report lays out the blueprint for prosperity and employment in five vital sectors in the North Fraser region."
Nearly 500 employers took part in the North Fraser labour market survey to delve into job vacancies, workforce profile (age, retirements) and training needs.