A welder works at a new condo building under construction in downtown Vancouver, in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward
Posted on 11/06/2025 9:34:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
At over 7 percent, the unemployment rate in Canada is the highest it has been in a decade. For those under 25, it surpasses 14 percent. This is a real challenge for young people at the beginning of their working lives. The usual rules for getting started on a promising career no longer seem to apply.
A welder works at a new condo building under construction in downtown Vancouver, in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward
A university degree does not open doors the way it used to. There are many more university graduates than there are openings that require this qualification, and this does not even consider the mismatch that exists between the fields of the vacant positions and those of the graduates.
The government has reacted to this sad situation by severely curtailing the number of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) allowed into Canada, presumably to save jobs for unemployed Canadians. It may not work. TFWs have been brought into Canada to fill jobs that, even in times of high unemployment, Canadians would not fill.
Agricultural workers are an example. Youth (and older workers) are reluctant to take seasonal jobs that require long hours of demanding physical labour outdoors for the rates of pay that our food-producing sector can afford.
TFWs also play a big role in entry-level service jobs, another area that is hard to fill with Canadians, especially if they have a university degree. Finding Canadians for these jobs is particularly acute in smaller centres and more remote locations.
Not only are the jobs left unfilled by reducing TFWs unattractive to most Canadians, but many of the more attractive jobs are now, or soon will be, replaced by AI. Older workers will recall how swathes of lower-level white-collar jobs, such as secretaries and clerks, were eliminated by the introduction of computers.
Now the work of higher-level positions can be done by AI. This includes junior executives, many mid-level management positions, and any position that has the word agent or broker in the title—areas where many aspiring leaders got their start. Now it is even harder to find any openings.
There are still good jobs in desirable locations that pay well, where vacancies tend to exceed job seekers and which will be difficult or impossible for AI to replace. Most Canadians do not even consider these opportunities or are barely aware of them.
The people needed now and into the future are trades workers, technicians, and technologists. Also needed are people who can provide a level of human contact that machines cannot offer in medicine and other areas.
Use the phrase “hands-on” to determine which occupations are safe from an AI takeover. AI cannot fix a leaky pipe or wire a new building. It cannot deliver a baby.
Nor can AI create and maintain the physical underpinnings of our 21st-century world. For this, technicians and technologists are required. Right now, there are openings for technicians and technologists in engineering at all levels and also in design, maintenance, inspection, project management, and other fields.
Such in-demand occupations are regulated in B.C. by the Association of Technicians and Technologists of B.C. Current job openings are listed here. Institutes of technology and many universities and colleges offer the training that would lead to positions like these. Most courses take two years, less than a university degree. Many technician and technology positions offer upward mobility into areas like management or professional engineering.
For those who prefer to deal with people, we will still need doctors, nurses, and other health professionals even as AI takes over the more tedious administrative aspects of that work. Counsellors and advisors will still be needed, but they will need to have both excellent people skills and detailed expertise in fields like financial planning, employment, and others. The more routine support and advice can and will be provided by AI.
Even in hands-on occupations, practitioners will still have to keep up to date with AI and other developing systems. These current and future developments will be like the telephone—useful and necessary in whatever we do. But they will also free us from the tedious administrative requirements that until now were part of just about every job.
We now find ourselves in an uncertain economy with high and rising unemployment. What used to be good ways to find a job or establish a career are no longer working, and AI-related elimination looms over many positions. But there are still many hands-on occupations that AI cannot fill and that offer good jobs now and excellent career prospects to those willing to consider them.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
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Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Here you are on another thread being nasty. Were you raised by wolves?
Face it - 95% of college courses fall in the arcane elective categories....
The trolls have gotten out of hand since Jim passed away, or hadn’t you noticed?
A couple of the trolls were dissing Tina Peters with Wikipedia political propaganda yesterday. Are you OK with that?
I think people are entitled to voice whatever opinion they have, even if that makes them look bad. You can push back; yet, it is still better to do so as politely as possible. Remember, the entire population of the planet can monitor these posts. How do you wish to appear to them?
If you’re half decent in the trades, they’ll tackle you to get you to work for them.
I got pulled over by a retired sheriff to do some work for him. We’re still friends.
___________________________
So true. Like everything else these days, there is a lot of riffraff out there, but those who take pride in their work are invaluable to everyday living. I remember asking one of these types the other day for his card. He told me, he doesn’t need cards. All his work comes by referrals and he has more work requests than he can handle.
My super smart 18-yo nephew just began as an intern employee in an auto repair shop. He could get free tuition through his dad’s job, but wanted a trade instead.
She's the Gold Star mother in Commierado that got imprisoned by the Colorado Commies for shedding light on their rigged elections.
Trump is trying to spring her from the Colorado gulags. Same kind of lawfare by the Commies.
High school girls are making a fortune doing hair weaves and nails. Soon they will be teaching it in high school.
Brilliant!
👍👍😁
We need a new gasket on our oven door. We could not find a model number on the oven, so we called our local Thermadore certified appliance company. A tech came out to find the model and replace the gasket.
He said he’d been in the repair business 24 years and had never seen this unit, so he removed the entire unit (display, microwave, warming drawer and bottom oven). It is big and heavy, so I provided muscle. While removing it, he chipped the oven cabinet!
He still couldn’t find a model number! He asked to borrow my tape measure to measure the cabinet opening. Then I had to provide Gorilla tape to tape the the flexible metal armored conduit.
While re-attaching the outside frame of the microwave he found the label hidden on the bottom!
We muscled the unit back in, got it screwed in and no gasket repair completed! He came out without any generic cistern-to-fit gasket on his truck.
Now here’s the kicker! He said he charges out at $250/hour plus mileage plus travel time. He handed me a $300 invoice! All I had was a model number, a chipped cabinet and no new gasket. He wanted payment on the spot, too!
I hit the roof, started screaming and he hightailed it out the front door. This was on a Friday and on SUNDAY we get a dunning email asking “Why haven’t you paid your bill?” That was just TWO DAYS after the service, not 30 days.
On Tuesday the service manager called me and I gave her the riot act. She cancelled the bill. Now I have to find a cabinet repairman, send her photos of the damage. I found another good independent repair guy, but he wants me to buy the parts.
Wow, what an ordeal. But $300 for a truck roll and a useless tech from a company that demands on-site payment after doing nothing but damaging the cabinet and finding the model number!
Yes, there’s a need for better people in the trades!
I was born in Wyoming and grew up in Colorado. I used to think I'd like to move back to croak; but, news from those states twenty years ago dissolved that idea. So much of this Nation is political/judicial ruins!
I just finished installing 400 sq ft of 3/4 in oak tongue and groove in my house. Never did it before. Took me 10 minutes to get the hang of it, mainly how to get the gaps out. I did watch a 5 minute video about it. Not much brains needed. To tell the truth it was stupid backbreaking work.
All should have a trade to fall back on. Harrison Ford, like Brigham Young is a carpenter.
The ColoCommies lined up a RINO fag judge to pretend they were pursuing a non-political prosecution of Tina Peters.
She was ordered to over-write an election hard-drive by the Colorado Secretary of State, Obama stooge “Dirty Jena” Griswold [by law, the data is supposed to be kept for 22 months]
“Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday for her role in a 2021 security breach in the elections office she was supposed to oversee.”
Peters had someone copy the hard drive before it was erased. May 2021 looks to me like less than 22 months after November 2020.
“in May 2021”
“Colorado’s election records retention is governed by federal law, which mandates that federal election records be preserved for at least 22 months, and by state guidelines from the Colorado State Archives. Records relevant to current or pending litigation cannot be destroyed, regardless of the schedule. Recent state attention has been focused on a broad request from the Department of Justice for 2024 election records, including voter registration and ballot information. “
I did wood floors professionally, dumbass.
I could easily tell you where you screwed up.
What a nightmare!
Gump,
Installing an oak floor takes no brains at all. It was my first time and my finished install looks perfect. Having said that it some of the most brutal stultifying work ever. Any dumbass booger eating moron can do it.
My Dad was an iron worker after WWII. He and Mom eventually started up a welding and fabrication company, making weldments for local companies. He wanted me to learn the trade and take over some day, but I wasn’t interested. THAT was the biggest mistake of my life.
After rolling around in college, I went to work as a “machine shop helper”. I learned turning, milling, and grinding. I spent the majority of my adult life working in a few machine shops operating OD and centereless grinding machines. So I learned a trade after all, in the tool making industry. It was good work, steady paychecks, and very rewarding.
HOWEVER, if I could turn back the clock and do it over again, I would’ve listened to Mom and Dad.
Yes, and you won the Lotto, too.
Not only are you a dumbass - you're a liar, too.
What your AI chatbot marcus doink?
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