EDMONTON - Alberta's jobs minister says employment forecasts show that over the next decade, 96,000 jobs in the province will go unfilled due to a shortage of workers.
Kyle Fawcett says projections show that during the next 10 years, 407,000 jobs will be created but only 311,000 will be filled.
Fawcett says the forecasts also show that more occupations are listed in the high-demand and moderately high-demand categories, yet shortages of labour in Alberta are becoming the norm and making the provincial labour market tighter.
The minister believes the outlook bolsters Alberta's argument for the Temporary Foreign Worker program and the need to let the province bring in more permanent workers through the Immigrant Nominee Program.
He says job strategies should also include getting more youth, aboriginals and people with disabilities into the provincial workforce.