Introduction
Tackling the labour crisis to ensure care in communities
Ontarians rely on nonprofit community care every day. Yet, the sector’s impact is threatened by a rapidly intensifying human resource crisis in organizations, compounded by the pandemic. ONN is hearing from its network that workers are leaving the sector in droves and staff vacancies have reached a breaking point. This has been reported widely: home and community care has an 18 per cent job vacancy rate, child care has lost 21 per cent of their workforce, while disability services, mental health and addictions, and shelters are reporting similar rates.
While recruiting and keeping talented people has always been a challenge for nonprofits, this moment is different. The pandemic has exacerbated challenges and the nonprofit sector is facing one or both of the following phenomena: the great resignation (there are enough people to work but who don’t want to work in the jobs available) and/or a labour shortage (not enough people to take on jobs available).