Is retail a dying industry?

[aGENT]

Apparently, Canada is very poor at keeping track of what they are actually doing, but there are over 150,000 in Canada:

http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/03/13/What-Foreign-Workers-Do/

I'd agree with you though, based on my anecdotal experience, the foreign workers seem to be extremely low skill or with specialized skills, like tradesmen, with few in between.

I think the problem breaks down to Canada's complete and baffling lack of central planning on this issue. Schools are government funded, yet Canada does not make any effort whatsoever to limit enrollment in programs based on demand. Every country in Europe does this, but Canada doesn't. The Nordic countries have this down pat. The effect is an elimination of unemployment in young people and increased efficiency in the post-secondary educational system making it free for the user. Canada seems to, however, pride itself on producing 100s of thousands of unemployed liberal arts graduates every year.

I find I rarely agree with most of your posts but this is bang on. The lack of a federal education ministry is baffling and its absence explains the main facet of our VERY unfortunate utter mismanagement of education/jobs in this country.

[taxi]

+100.

But be careful with the words "central planning" unless you want to be labelled as a commie here. LOL!!

EDIT: I remember seeing an interview with like the federal minister of education, or something, and she was so casual and dismissive about the issue (education is the provinces responsibility, blah blah blah) that it almost comes across like she doesn't give one damn about the problem.

There's nothing "free market" about letting people choose their own educational field without limits on enrollment either. The government pays for the universities and heavily subsidizes the tuition. Either force people to pay 100% of the cost (like the USA) or allow the government to put limits on who takes what (like Europe). With $30,000/yr tuition, you'd see a lot more people prioritizing actual job prospects when entering post-secondary. Similarly, with limits on who can enter what program, you'd see far more efficiency.

[Hugor Hill]

There's nothing "free market" about letting people choose their own educational field without limits on enrollment either. The government pays for the universities and heavily subsidizes the tuition. Either force people to pay 100% of the cost (like the USA) or allow the government to put limits on who takes what (like Europe). With $30,000/yr tuition, you'd see a lot more people prioritizing actual job prospects when entering post-secondary. Similarly, with limits on who can enter what program, you'd see far more efficiency.

Exactly. To add, efficiency depends so much on availability and accesibiliity of relevant and accurate information, which our government has completely failed to produce.