The unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted both individual job seekers and major corporations alike, and the full effect likely won’t be understood for years to come.
A number of them are closing their doors and other ones are just barely holding on,” said Terry Caddo, president of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce.
In the case of something like restaurants and tourism-focused businesses, the region has already witnessed the closure of a number of popular local restaurants.
On the other side, businesses involved in home improvement have widely been reporting that they are seeing remarkable profits.
Following the March 2020 declaration of a state of emergency due to the pandemic, unemployment spiked as companies closed or laid people off in response.
So, whether that be retail or kind of minimum wage, entry-level, warehousing or labour positions, those companies are struggling quite a bit to find employees.
And, you know, my other business is very much the same — we have other business interests, but it’s the same thing, I got more work than I know what to do with.
I heard from the Aldershot BIA there’s restaurants that can’t get buns for sandwiches, and they had to close down because they couldn’t get their baking material in,” said Caddo.
I think that’s amazing and it speaks to, just the human nature of wanting to make something special and to make your mark.
According to the Halton Region Economic Review 2020, there are over 200,000 jobs available in a wide variety of industries.
“Halton has a highly-skilled, in-demand labour force that continues to have among the lowest unemployment rates within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas.