We’re excited to announce the release of our Joint Labour Market Report for Northwestern Ontario—a collaborative effort between the North Superior Workforce Planning Board (NSWPB), the Northwest Training and Adjustment Board (NTAB), and EmployNext.

This comprehensive report offers in-depth insights into workforce trends, job market shifts, and economic development opportunities across the Thunder Bay, Kenora, and Rainy River districts. Whether you’re a service provider, employer, policymaker, or community advocate, this data-driven resource will help inform your planning and decision-making in the year ahead.

Download the English report now:  Northwest Labour Market Analysis 2025

Download the French report now:  Analyse du marché du travail pour le Nord Ouest Mars 2025

Inside the Report:

• Current and projected job trends
• Workforce participation and demographic shifts
• Sector-specific challenges and opportunities
• Regional economic outlook
• Deep dive into District data

We encourage you to share this report with your networks and use the findings to support strategic initiatives that strengthen our region’s workforce and economy.

Please note: The future outlook of the Northwest economic region was produced prior to recent changes in immigration policy and the emerging threat of U.S. tariffs.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the findings further, we would be happy to connect.

Please click the image above to access the 2025 Update to the 2022-2025 Local Labour Market Plan Report for the Kenora and Rainy River Districts.

The Northwest Training and Adjustment Board (NTAB) covers two catchment areas; the Kenora District and the Rainy River District. Each one comes with its own unique challenges. NTAB works with local partners and stakeholders to identify these local labour force issues. Local planning provides communities with the ability to identify, understand, and develop sustainable strategies to address labour market issues within our districts.

We have an aging workforce that needs immediate attention. As well, more skilled tradespeople/apprentices are needed to grow our local economies. The relationship between economic development, higher educational attainments, supporting our Indigenous population and promoting Immigration are things needed to positively impact where we live. NTAB works to support Small and Medium Entrepreneurs in fields like Tourism, Agriculture and other various Service Sectors.

Forestry, Mining and Health Care create a lot of good job opportunities in the two districts and on-going work is needed with welcoming newcomers to help fill some of the vacancies that exist in these and other sectors.

The Northwest Training and Adjustment Board’s Directors and staff recognize that we gather on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe and Métis Peoples within the Kenora and Rainy River Districts. It is our hope that the information that is gathered and shared through the work of the Northwest Training and Adjustment Board will assist in the process of truth and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and augment the intended sharing of resources that these lands provide to its residents.

In 2021-2022, the Northwest Training and Adjustment Board released a plan for workforce development in the Kenora and Rainy River Districts covering the period of 2022 to 2025.  The three-year evidence-based plan focused on:

• Re-building the local economy through the availability of a resilient and skilled labour force;
• Re-engaging with workers as they return to the workforce and students as they prepare for the future;
• Re-igniting the local economy via actions and strategies outlined in our Workforce Development Action Plan 2022-2025.

This report provides the final annual update of the 3-year plan addressing the five priorities that have formed the basis of NTAB’s local labour market plan for many years:

1. Transitioning our workforce in a changing economy.
2. Attraction/Retention of Key Demographics of our Population.
3. Evolving Education Requirements.
4. Supporting entrepreneurs.
5. Integrating the Marginalized Workforce.

To keep reading click the image above to access the full report.

For further information, please contact:

Northwest Training & Adjustment Board
113-100 Casimir Avenue Dryden, ON  P8N 3L4
Phone 807.223.3813
ntab@ntab.on.ca

Our report is also available in French

A Collection of Workforce and Workplace Literacy Resources

Workforce and workplace literacy have been of special interest to Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) agencies in Ontario for many years. And over that time, many excellent resources have been developed. However, these resources can be difficult to find as they tend to reside on organizational webpages – locally, regionally, provincially, and nationally – and not in one location.

In fact, gathering all the good workforce and workplace literacy resources in one place is a challenging task. As you review this publication, if you think there is an excellent resource that we did not discover and include, please share it by emailing director@literacynorthwest.on.ca

To continue reading please click the image above.