Thank you for inviting me here today.
I'd like to start by acknowledging the many steps that the government has taken to respond to labour shortages in this country, in particular the decision to maintain immigration levels at their current levels throughout the recession, while many other countries chose to reduce numbers significantly.
The restaurant sector considers itself to be the unsung hero of the Canadian economy. We represent $63 billion in annual sales and 4% of Canada's GDP. Unlike other sectors, our industry is present not only in every province and territory but in just about every single community across the country. Over one million full-time jobs exist in our sector, and we're the fourth-largest private sector employer in Canada. We're among the top three tourist attractions in the country, and Canadians visit our establishments 18 million times a day. We're at the heart of ethnic communities across the country. Often the way you can tell you're in an ethnic community is the high concentration of restaurants in that neighbourhood.
We do face some significant challenges with labour shortages. Our industry is traditionally youth-centric. Currently one in five jobs in Canada for youth is in our sector. While many other sectors are seriously concerned about the looming labour shortage, the demographic shift we're continuing to experience in Canada, with fewer youth and an aging population, has a very significant impact on our sector because of the high proportion of youths who traditionally work for us. According to the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council, the restaurant sector will face significant labour shortages by 2025, with over 142,000 full-year jobs projected to go unfilled.
Currently under the ministerial instructions, chefs, cooks, and restaurant managers can enter Canada under the federal skilled-worker program. Our shortage will be in occupations requiring both a higher and lower degree of formal training. For example, we will be short 16,000 cooks and 47,000 food-counter attendants. Even now, in these precarious economic times, our third-quarter restaurant industry outlook indicated that 30% of restaurants are concerned about the shortage of qualified labour.
Specifically on immigration in our sector, we are the number one first-time job for Canadians. Seventy-nine per cent of Canadians agree that working in a restaurant teaches you how to be part of a team. Fifty-nine per cent agree that working in restaurants helps new Canadians develop crucial skills for life in Canada. Fifty-one per cent agree that the restaurant industry is a great industry for new Canadians to gain experience in.
Other sectors face significant challenges when immigrants come into the country and their credentials cannot be immediately recognized. Often foreign training and experience is highly valued in our sector. Immigrants from countries with strong hospitality or culinary culture thrive in our industry, and we have significantly lower problems with foreign credential recognition than other sectors. The explosion of ethnic cuisine in Canada means that foreign-trained chefs and cooks are in very high demand and are able to integrate into the labour force immediately. Because our industry will face shortages in occupations that require both a high and lower degree of formal education, immigration policies that allow workers with significant training and experience in our industry as well as those that encourage young families to come to our country are both important for our long-term success.
We note that there are some problems with backlogs in immigration currently, but many of those backlogs have been significantly reduced due to the reforms in 2008. The current delays mean that primary applicants and their families are not able to come to Canada immediately to fill the jobs that are waiting for them. Individuals who are eager to come to Canada are therefore often coming in as temporary foreign workers, and this is putting increasing pressure on provincial nominee programs with some unintended consequences.
For example, I recently was speaking to the head of human resources for a national chain, who was saying that they're experiencing major problems in Alberta where they're bringing in temporary foreign workers only to have those foreign workers leave Alberta immediately and move to Saskatchewan, where the PNP is more generous. Also, this is creating problems for the arranged employment stream of immigration. This is a stream of immigration that is not well understood by employers in our sector, and there is significant concern about the uncertainty for processing times. Backlogs mean that employers cannot count on those employees to arrive in the timeframe required, and often they'll have to fill those vacancies in other ways while waiting for those immigrants to arrive in Canada. We look forward to working with the government to help solve some of these problems and to increase awareness about this stream of immigration.
I also wanted to provide a few concrete examples of success stories in our industry that many immigrants have had. I had the opportunity recently to meet someone who came to Canada 10 years ago. Their first job was as a dishwasher in a Swiss Chalet restaurant. They are now the proud owner of two Swiss Chalet franchises.
I also had a bit of a different conversation with the operator of an Indian restaurant just north of Toronto, who was complaining that he brings in Indian chefs and after three years of working for him, they keep opening their own restaurants, creating more jobs in our industry.
In summary, the impending labour shortage means that Canadian restaurant operators are increasingly relying on a supply of new workers through steady immigration streams.
Thank you very much.