Written by Express Employment International on Jan 30, 2026
As the job market continually evolves, it’s critical to ensure your business has workers with the right training, knowledge, and experience before you face workforce shortages. Preparing for the future allows you and your company to train current and new employees to perfectly fill roles with your organization.
Monitoring workforce and industry disruptions and building systems to address the needs created by those disruptions is essential to maintaining your workforce.
Labor Shortages Loom Large in North America
Labor shortages fueled by retirements outpacing the entry of new workers into the workforce, and available candidates not matching needed skills, are accelerating knowledge gaps for companies.
Finding qualified candidates is a top challenge for U.S. companies (46%) and Canadian companies (48%), according to a recent Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll survey. The stats from a variety of sources tell a compelling story:
- Through 2032, the U.S. needs 5.25 million more workers with education and training beyond high school, according to George Town University’s Falling Behind: How Skills Shortages Threaten Future Jobs report.
- More than 3 million Skilled Trades jobs in the U.S. are estimated to remain unfilled through 2028.
- In Canada, 700,000 Skilled Trades workers are expected to retire and more than 222,000 new Red Seal journeypersons are needed by 2028.
- The construction industry lacks 500,000 workers in the U.S., and nearly 381,000 workers are needed in Canada by 2034.
- Manufacturers are filling only six out of 10 job openings, according to research from McKinsey & Company.
These gaps represent real challenges for businesses trying to meet demand and maintain productivity.
Address Disruption with Upskilling and Reskilling
The solution to maintaining a quality workforce goes beyond hiring. Upskilling allows companies to train current employees to fill needed skills. Systems to reskill employees train them to take on new roles or responsibilities create a pipeline for employees to continually advance their skills and knowledge.
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships provide hands-on training for students and new workers, creating a direct path to skilled careers. They allow companies to shape talent to meet their specific needs while offering job seekers valuable experience and can help improve productivity and profitability.
Apprenticeship USA has resources for companies to create a Registered Apprenticeship Program. Apprenticeship programs in Canada enable companies to host apprenticeships with support for employers.
Mentorship
Mentoring relationships offer a unique opportunity for learning, growth, and connection, often leading to developing new skills and gaining confidence. Developing structured mentorship opportunities in your company, and embracing the strengths of every generation, eases knowledge gaps by enabling tenured workers to train new workers on specific business needs and processes.
Leverage Job Satisfaction
Skilled Trades workers are generally happy in their jobs. This optimism, combined with strong demand, makes Skilled Trades an attractive career path with recruitment and retention opportunities.
In the U.S., 90% of tradespeople are very or somewhat satisfied with their jobs and 42% expect the labor shortage to improve, according to Angi’s Skilled Trades in America Report.
In Canada, Skilled Trades, and four additional job categories, accounted for 65% of the most sought-after skilled roles and a fifth of all job postings in 2023. On average, demand for Skilled Trades and related occupations is projected to increase by 4.5%, heavily concentrated in construction, which has projected growth of 4.8%, according to the Skilled & Ready: Polytechnic Solutions for Canada’s Labour Market Demand report.
