With ever-advancing technologies and artificial intelligence creeping into the workforce, job security for current and future generations has never been more worrying. CKNW’s Future of Work series focuses on how British Columbia’s job market is going to evolve and how to help workers get the best possible employment opportunities in the future.
In the kitchens, behind the bars and on the floors of restaurants across B.C., there is a brewing labour shortage.
In fact, the B.C. Restaurant and Food Services Association (BCRFA) estimates by 2021, it could be short by 20,000 employees.
It’s a problem being exacerbated by a shift in demographics, as young people — who make up about a third of the industry’s workforce — move on to replace retiring baby boomers in other fields, without being replaced themselves.
Samantha Schoelfield is a project manager with the BCRFA, who recently compiled the Metro Vancouver Restaurant Labour Shortage report.
On Tuesday, she joined CKNW’s Lynda Steele to talk about the challenges in attracting and training a workforce among millennials and Generation Z.
And she spoke to innovations in the work-life balance employers hope can help fill the gap.
LISTEN: How to attract and keep the next generation of restaurant staff