Executive Summary

Annually, a Local Labour Market Plan (LLMP) is developed for Bruce, Grey, Huron and Perth counties to highlight movement in the local economy. In this update we will examine the number of businesses in each county and also reflect on the employment and participation rates of the region’s residents in 2014. This LLMP will provide an update on the previously presented menu of short, medium and long term community driven priorities.

We continue to examine how we will use the 2014 Skills Gap Study to implement the many ideas generated from the input received through our survey process. We will also use the EmployerOne input from local businesses to develop strategies that can help employers meet their workforce needs and residents to connect their training to these needs thereby closing the identified local skills gap.

In January 2015, employers shared their hiring challenges for 2014. We gleaned that 2,956 new jobs were created by 160 of the responding employers in Bruce, Grey, Huron and Perth counties. We also learned that 67% of respondents felt the availability of qualified workers was fair or poor. We believe this warrants attention by getting the skills needs communicated and developing strategies to up skill our current workforce base.