Alberta working on a job matching program for agriculture and food sector

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Each province is feeling the incredible economic hit from COVID-19, but Alberta — with its oil and gas-based economy — may be harder hit than some, as the price of oil has plummeted. There are many Albertans out of work, and many Alberta farm and agriculture businesses looking to fill a gap that seasonal workers may be unable to fill this summer, due to travel restrictions.

The Province of Alberta is currently looking at implementing a job matching program to match people with certain skill sets to potential jobs within the agricultural and food supply chain.

Minister of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Devin Dreeshen, says the government is currently identifying the skills of unemployed Albertans right now.

“We are working with industry to identify what are the skills, and the needs of skills that they have with this high unemployment rate that’s going on right now due to COVID-19. So we’re trying to match the jobs supply with the job’s demand.”

Dreeshan says the province will be rolling out a job matching program soon, because “whether you wash dishes for a restaurant, washing potatoes isn’t much different,” adding, “We want to make sure that unemployed Albertans have the opportunity to be to identify places they could be working in our ag and food supply chain.”

More details to come as the program develops.

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