Canada is a hub of many industries which from time immemorial have been contributing to its growth. Out of these large variety, the hotel industry is one such sector. It has been at a time, one of the largest employers in the country. If one closely analyses it, it is one of those few areas which provide maximum growth to an individual. A person can grow up from ranks once getting employed in this profession. However of late the hotel industry of Canada is facing a sphere of problems of which labor shortage is one which has robbed the hoteliers of their sleep.

Labor shortage

The hotel industry has been yearning for workers for many years. The global economic recession further worsened the problem with the situation of labor shortage turning into a miserable plight. During this time from 423,000 the figure went down to 320,000 in case of the number of people serving the hotel industry of Canada. Though the economy has ameliorated in the recent times, but still as Tony Pollard who is the President of The Hotel Association of Canada believes, the hoteliers cannot afford to relax. It has been predicted by eminent professionals of this field that by 2015 Canada will face a mass dearth of workers in its hotels which would be beyond control provided action is taken at the right time.

Factors contributing to this crisis

Once which started as a small issue of less workers in few hotels of some provinces of Canada, today has evolved into a national problem faced by the entire hotel industry of the country. There are some factors which has accelerated the vacancies in the hotel sector:

• Demographic factors.

• Workers with good communication skills in English not easily available.

• Low wages and pay offered, thus not much satisfaction in terms of monetary basis.

All these can be held as reasons behind the difficulty faced by the employers to attract and be able to retain workers in their hotels.

Labor shortage leading to high labor costs

The increased demand of workers has culminated to a remarkable increase in the cost of building hotels and in the wages of the hotel workers. As per a survey around 44.6 percent of the total expenditure of a hotel goes to labor wages. Labor wages as such has always been one of the biggest expense irrespective of the categories or class of hotels. This point is further strengthened by a report which has stated that most of the Canadian hotels have recorded a rise of 2 to 4 percent per year in their labor wages in the last five years. This sudden inflation in the pay of the workers has added to the woes of the hoteliers thus making their search for workers an up hill task.

Measures to be taken to fulfill the demand

It is required on the part of the hoteliers to respond strategically as well as try out innovative ideas to deal with this demand of workers. Providing good opportunities for learning and development; support by the management; and organizing workshops for training the workers are some of the steps which should be put to use by the hotel industry which would act as a catalyst in attracting the workers. Immigrants are also a strong option which can be used to fill in the vacancies currently existing in the hotel industry of Canada.