Peel looks at future labour market

Mississauga News
January 27, 2009

John Bikila

The Region of Peel is conducting a major research project in an effort to better gauge the needs and skills of people in the local labour market.

The Peel Labour Market Survey will look at the employment experiences of residents to gain a better understanding of the talent pool available and how government and community stakeholders can best meet the needs and skills of the current and future labour market, said project manager Laureen Rennie.

“With the data that we’ve already collected, it tells us that not only does Peel have a growing immigration population, but they also come with highly skilled, professional backgrounds,” Rennie said. “But employers have told us that there is a need to recruit and increase their staff. So there’s a gap. We want to find out why it’s there and how we can address it.”

Targeting both employed and unemployed immigrants and non-immigrants, the research project aims to receive 3,000 completed surveys by mid-March.

“It’s encouraging to look at both the immigrant and non-immigrant populations,” said Rennie. “We’re trying to get the private sector involved, because this affects local businesses as well.”

Participants must be 15 years of age or older, live in Brampton, Caledon or Mississauga, and have looked for work in Canada within the past 10 years. They’ll need 15-30 minutes to complete the survey, depending on their profile, said Rennie.

The survey is available in Punjabi, Urdu and Chinese.

To participate in the survey, visit www.peelregion.ca/labourmarketsurvey.

Reference: Mississauga News