Ottawa: The labour shortage is growing in Canada in last two years and as tens of thousands of people simply stopped working.

According to the latest data released by Statistics Canada, Canadians are rushing to retire early than ever before.

According to the latest data, the number of Canadians who retired last year reached 50 percent. The trend is also unlikely to slow down as warned by economists.

Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada, says that the ageing population in Canada has now reached the age of retirement as 307,000 Canadians retired in the last 12 months, up from 233,000 Canadians who retired in a year ago.

Moreover, in August, 11.9 per cent of permanent employers decided to quit their jobs in the next 12 months, up 5.5 per cent from January, according to a report by Statistics Canada.

“This trend continued even during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this trend persisted even before the pandemic.”

He said 273,000 Canadians retired between August 2019 and August 2020 including the younger employees.

David McDonald, chief economist at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, argued that the reason for the myriad of retirements was not the demographics or covid outbreak. Had it not been for all this, perhaps some people could have kept working or at least think about it.

McDonald said there is no doubt that this is a Covid-related issue. Most of the retired teachers and nurses were there. “Whatever be the reason for retirement, the only way to keep the Canadian economy developing and sustaining is strong immigration,” he said. “We have a very low birth rate in Canada.

Antunes also described immigration as a fundamentally healthy and essential factor for the growth of the economy. He said that even if Canada’s birth rate improves overnight, it will not be able to eliminate the current labor shortage.

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