28% of Canadians vow to upskill in bid to stay employable

The move marks growing anxieties over job insecurities in the workforce

28% of Canadians vow to upskill in bid to stay employable

Amid concerns over job security, more than a quarter of Canadians are training and upskilling themselves even further to secure a job in the market, according to a report from Robert Half.

The study found that 28% of workers are already undertaking additional training and upskilling, while 40% of workers are assessing their skills to ensure that they are up to date. This is in addition to other steps that employees are taking, including:

  • Actively looking for a new role within their sector/industry (43%)
  • Actively looking for a new role outside of their current sector/industry (33%)

Job concerns are mostly attributed to the uncertain economic conditions across the world. In fact, 80% of employees said in a recent FlexJob study that inflation is impacting their career decisions.

According to the report, only 12% are extremely confident in finding a new job, 26% are very confident, 45% are somewhat confident, while 17% are not confident at all.

Read more: AskHRD: How can I support my people through inflation?

These concerns also came despite a recent report also from Robert Half that revealed strong hiring plans in the second half of the year. This report found that 40% of employers are planning to add new positions, while 50% are planning to fill vacated slots.

But upskilling may be employees' response to employers' demands to find skilled professionals, which they cited as a challenge due to a lack of qualified talent and high salary expectations from candidates.

Organisations with enough resources with them are already increasing starting salaries (42%) to recruit skilled talent, according to the report. Others are offering remote options (34%), providing signing bonuses (31%), and even considering candidates outside the company's geography (30%).  

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