My son owns a small Fab shop

He fills some fairly hefty dollar amount contracts to deliver finished product to some fairly large size USA Co's

He has all the work he can handle

His problem is finding qualified trades people

He is from a mid size town with a booming local economy

As of now, if he could find qualified workers he could do more biz.

His workers are loyal and put out a good product

He had to lay one person off because of workmanship

However, he told the worker such and such was hiring

The worker found a job, doing essentially the same work, that same week in another shop

My son is located mid way between Windsor and Toronto in Ontario.

 I was past two fab shops 10 miles from home

Both shops seemed to be busy

It seems if you have a skill or something of value to offer, the jobs are out there

Some graduate students do on the job training and most find work

Once again they offer value

My niece just finished university

She is a really aggressive leader type with experience in the food industry from high school onward

She has been hired full time and will start work this month, with a decent starting salary

Once again she brought value to the table

I have another niece working in Toronto in the high end food industry. She is well into a 6 figure salary

I have noticed several new small business starting

If the owners keep their accts up to date and operate in a business manner, they usually succeed. Most new business have 1 or two employees. A fab shop would rarely have more than 20 employees.

We don't have very many large places of employment except a couple of auto assembly plants

We live right up against the main hwy corridor between Windsor and Toronto

The amount of truck traffic crossing from Detroit, Mich to the hwy corridor, onward to Toronto seems to be more and more every yr

That corridor is becoming a three way lane each way almost the entire distance, with two lanes almost solid trucks

It seems Ontario is increasing business. The auto industry is an important part of that truck traffic, but other products seem to be increasing faster than the auto industry

I don't know of any trucking operations shutting down. Most advertise for more AZ drivers.

Maybe we have too many unskilled workers

Just a quick over view from my back yard, in Ontario

Thanks Wayne

 Your area sounds healthy and what your observations indicate it's business as usual.

Offer value and people will come.

Its just that "things" seem so upside down these days and so many folks I talk with are less than happy that I wonder. My older generation,so to speak,seems to be getting eclipsed by the up and coming group who are approaching this world with a whole different set of rules and values,Sour grapes?? Lots of folks getting the squeeze put on them.

John