Even more startling is the news that this honeymoon period could last the next two decades, or more.

"Certainly, current demographic and employment trends indicate that, beginning end-2011, employers will have to start hiring new talent to fill their staffing requirements, or they'll have to do without," Shalini da Cunha, executive director, Peel Halton Workforce Development Group, told Focus last week.

"These trends indicate this period could last as long as 14 years," she added. Da Cunha was obviously referring to the Baby Boom generation that could start retiring from the workplace as soon as 2011, causing a dearth of employees in the workforce.

"Yes, the recent recession has possibly eroded the savings of those approaching retirement, and so could slow the process. But the data is incontrovertible: there will be fewer employees out there, and companies will have to source fresh talent, either from the existing pool - or from the pool of new immigrants."

But she cautioned this is only one part of a multi-sided equation, and that several other key things have to happen - even as she indicated there could be many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.

Da Cunha operates in the Peel-Halton region, which continues to prove a...

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