More older adult job seekers at Cavendish summer job fair, says organizer

It's that time of year again when seasonal businesses on P.E.I. are looking to fill summer positions.

"There is a labour shortage and we've been talking about it for a long time. But, we're really seeing it now [Employers] really need employees out here and they need all the help they can get to recruit," said Kathy Livingstone, one of the organizers of Saturday's Cavendish Job Fair.

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About 40 employers were at the fair looking to fill summer positions. Most of the jobs available at Saturday's Cavendish Tourism Job Fair were in the culinary industry line cooks, servers and bartenders.

But Livingstone also noticed an interesting demographic shift in job seekers this year more older adults.

At previous job fairs, she said the majority of job seekers were students.

"As far employees go, I mean we see a lot more mature people looking to work in our industry,"said Livingstone, who is also director of training and education for the Tourism Industry Association of Prince Edward Island.

"A lot of them have retired from a career doing something.They're not ready to sit in the rocking chair."

Mario Cormier isn't ready to retire yet. He has a background in information technology. But he is hoping to break into the tourism industry and land a job this summer. At the job fair, he said he lined up a few job interviews for the summer.

"I used to take calls in a call centre for P.E.I. tourism But I found I enjoyed that, and tourism seems to be a pretty big part of the Island industry,"he said.

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