Early retirement decisions contribute to Kamloops labour shortage

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops businesses of all sizes have struggled to find and keep employees as labour shortages plague the entire country and most of the world.

Dean Stainton, vice-president of people experience for NRI Distribution, said staffing has been difficult across all of their North American locations, but the Kamloops centre has been particularly challenged with a smaller labour pool compared to larger hub cities.

“Staffing in Kamloops and labour in Kamloops has been difficult to find and secure over the past number of months, for sure, and continues to be a challenge as we head into the season where we’re competing with retailers and others for labour,” Stainton said.

WorkBC estimates about 64,000 British Columbians retire each year, leaving increasing vacancies in the workforce.

According to a study of the Interior B.C. workforce commissioned by Venture Kamloops, the region is projected to need an additional 10,000 workers by the year 2025 to fill vacant positions.

Jim Anderson, executive director of Venture Kamloops, said while many people were unable to work during the pandemic, others chose to retire early.

Once the world started to open back up, the extent of the labour shortage became more clear, even though in the province, more people are working now than before the pandemic.

Unable to fill job openings in the Tournament Capital, employers may need to start looking outside the local workforce to fill positions.

After young people enter the workforce, new international immigrants form the next largest source of new workers in Canada, Anderson says many employers are looking to this avenue to help solve their labour shortage issues.

“We know it’s an arduous process to hire from overseas, [with] immigration technicalities and paperwork that come into play – make it much more difficult,” Anderson said. “But I believe now that the difficulty working without these employees outweighs the difficulty of trying to recruit from overseas.”

Margot Middleton, city councillor and business owner, said businesses will have to get creative when recruiting new hires.

“I think all businesses now because it is very difficult to hire and bring people in — are looking at ways to make their business place more attractive for workers,” Middleton said.

NRI Distribution says on top of offering bonuses and discounts on products they work with, they have also altered shift schedules to fit different lifestyles and transit routes,

“Flexibility is really something that’s meaningful to a lot of folks and something that we’re very cognizant of and really promote within our Kamloops environment,” Stainton said.