Making sense of the market

At the risk of sounding like a stats nerd, I found the 2012 update to the Tourism Labour Supply / Demand Study really interesting. The report plots labour supply and demand projections by occupation and region from 2011 to 2030 and the figures show a labour supply/demand curve that clearly echoes the recent recession and recovery. I was surprised to see that Ontario actually recorded a surplus of over 7,000 tourism and hospitality workers in 2011. OTEC was involved in recruiting industry participation in the study and I know the research is solid, but I have to say that we didn’t really witness those kinds of conditions last year. Working with a network of over 12 tourism training and partnership projects across the province, we saw pretty consistent placement/hiring rates in almost every region. I don’t know if it’s because successful businesses tend to hire in any market, or, if it’s just that good people are always in demand, but it’s encouraging to know that many businesses, and candidates, were able to weather the storm.