Skill Shortages and Advanced Technology Adoption - ARCHIVED

This paper investigates the extent to which establishments in the Canadian manufacturing sector experience occupational skill shortages, and to the extent that they do, whether these shortages appear to act as impediments to advanced technology adoption. Plants adopting advanced technology report shortages, particularly when it comes to professionals, such as scientists and engineers, and to technical specialists. Whether these shortages pose labour-market problems depends very much on the solutions adapted by the establishments experiencing the shortages. This paper finds that labour shortages did not appear to block technology adoption since those establishments that reported shortages were also the most technologically advanced. Although they faced a greater need for skilled labour, they were able to solve their shortages.