You might get a phone call from Statistics Canada next week.
Starting Monday, interviewers will be calling 2,000 randomly selected households, on behalf of the Chatham-Kent Workforce Planning Board.
Project Manager Kristy Jacobs says the municipality is seeking updated labour market information.
She says they already know what employers need, because they can glean that information from other sources like job postings, or from employers directly. But she says they lack hard data on the skills gap.
"If our demand side data is telling us we need a thousand widget makers, and our supply-side data shows we do have a thousand widget makers, then that would just tell us we don't really have a gap," says Jacobs. "So we're hoping to get some definition on that, and really determine that some of the things we're hearing our workforce is lacking, we want to make sure that's really the case."
Jacobs says the survey is being conducted all thanks to a partnership offered by the agency.
"It was a really great opportunity that Statistics Canada came to the community with. They are hiring new people, and training new people...so they will do this for us free of charge as a training initiative for their staff."
The survey runs until next Friday, September 23, and individual residents will remain confidential.
The information collected will only be used for the purposes of determining where our gaps are and how to bridge them, Jacobs says.
Although the survey is voluntary, she's urging everyone to pick up the phone, noting if we don't know what we have, we can't sell Chatham-Kent.
"This is an opportunity to actually have a bit of inventory about what we do have here in Chatham-Kent to help us market," says Jacobs.
The analyzed data is expected back to the Board by the end of October.
YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN:
