Aging population will widen labour gap in Canadian agriculture: report

By The Canadian Press on February 15, 2024.

OTTAWA – A new report says by 2030, Canada’s agriculture industry will have a domestic labour gap of more than 100,000 jobs.

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council says the forecast represents a 15 per cent increase compared with the number of jobs in 2023 that couldn’t be filled by Canadian residents.

The council says that this growing gap is due in part to Canada’s aging population.

More than 30 per cent of the agriculture workforce is expected to retire over the same period.

The report says temporary foreign workers will play an important role in narrowing the gap, with about four in five of those 100,000 jobs to be filled by a foreign worker.

However, it says that even with a projected increase in temporary foreign workers by 2030, 22,000 positions will still remain vacant.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2024.

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