ON -- With an aging population and a dropping youth work force the province risks falling behind other provinces if it does not institute a new strategy, says a new study from Colleges Ontario.

"We have a serious problem with skills mismatches in Ontario and the time for complacency is over," said Linda Franklin, President and CEO of Colleges Ontario. "We have to act now - we can't wait until we have been eclipsed by faster-moving competitors in the world economy."

Colleges Ontario has highlighted some alarming signs in regards to the provinces economy which include:

• After the Maritimes, Ontario has the higher youth unemployment rate;
• Wages and participation rates of unskilled workers in the province have dropped in recent years and continue to fall;
• Literacy skills are a big problem; half of the province's unemployed workers do not have literacy scores high enough to match the level needed to keep the economy going; and
• Another point of concern is that while 70 per cent of new jobs require at least some post-secondary education, less then half of Canadians have post secondary education.

"The fact is too many people don't have the right skills for the jobs that are available. And those working will require continuous education and re-training throughout their lives to update and transform their skill sets to use new technology and meet new needs," said Franklin.

Food, retail and information industries will be likely to feel the decrease in younger workers the most. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when the first of the baby boomers begin to retire in 2011, the health care, manufacturing and public sector will be hit hard.

"As the economy relies more heavily on older workers, skills upgrading and retraining for existing workers will continue to grow in importance," Franklin said.

Within 5 years even more stress will be placed upon people already in the work force as a result of not enough young people entering the workforce.

"Ontario's future economic performance relies on investments in highly skilled people, new technologies, innovation, and an educated citizenry," she said. "The government must implement effective strategies to ensure that our future labour force has the skills we need to compete in a tough world economy."

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to visit CanadaOne's article knowledge base for more informative articles.