globeandmail.com : Escasez de trabajadores en la mira para las Olimpiadas del 2010

Worker shortage glows red in runup to 2010
Construction needs reach Olympic high
CATHRYN ATKINSON

Special to The Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER -- Construction workers being poached from job sites by rival companies. Companies fully booked more than a year in advance for construction jobs. Worries that Olympic venues won't be completed on time, or completed at exorbitant costs.

These are just some of the signs that the shortage of skilled construction workers has hit a red-hot crisis point in British Columbia.

Employers estimate they will need 20,000 construction workers during the next three years to add to the 167,000 currently on the job across the province. Increasingly, companies are looking overseas to fill their needs.

"I've been in construction for 28 years, and I've seen the highs and lows here, but I've never seen anything like this," said Len Edmondson, vice-president of Flynn Canada Ltd., one of the country's largest building-exterior contractors.


globeandmail.com : Worker shortage glows red in runup to 2010