Baby boomer bust
Source: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3563/is_14_18/ai_90470762



Baby boomer bust: does Canada have enough IT workers ready for when baby boomers retire in the next few years? - Editor's Note - Statistics Canada's report - Editorial

Computer Dealer News, July 26, 2002 by Paolo Del Nibletto



Statistics Canada's latest report on the workforce has major implications for the IT industry in this country.



According to the report, fewer young people are entering the workforce to replace older people who are retiring.



The study, conducted in 2001 and released this month, shows that baby boomers those who were born between the second world war andl the mid-sixties, hold a major chunk of the jobs out there. More than one-third of all workers are baby boomers.



It begs the question: Are there enough people to replace all these workers when they retire? And, for the IT industry, which has always carried a 15,000 to 35,000 worker shortfall over the past two decades (according to CADAPSO and CATAAlliance), this study is not welcome news.



For now there is a pool of skilled workers who have been laid off from the Nortels and all the dot-com busts of the world but these people have already looked into other vocations to earn a living.



Also, when you have companies such as Microsoft and IBM recruiting the best IT talent this country produces for work in the United States, the problem will become only worse.



Without a strong IT workforce, Canada's competitiveness in the IT world will be challenged just when we started to make waves.



As a Canadian and a nationalist, I hate learning about the AVRO Arrow, for example, and how the top minds of that project were lured to the U.S. after then Prime Minister John Deifenbaker scrapped the project.



These men and women who went to work for aerospace companies in the U.S. were part of the first Apollo mission to the moon.



Canada could have had that history, if the government was forward-thinking enough.



Today, we are in the midst of another problem and the government must act to stem this tide.



More immigration of skilled IT workers is needed.



More educational programs must be put in place for IT in elementary schools and high schools.



More IT programs for young women should be developed.



It is all up to us, Canada.



COPYRIGHT 2002 Plesman Publications

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