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When businesses can’t find workers, they can’t boost production, launch new products or open new locations, he said.

The bottom line? Opportunities are lost and the entire region is held back.

Despite London’s 5.5 per cent official unemployment rate, which is about as low as it gets in the area, there’s still a big pool of potential employees out there.

About one in five working-age adults in London aren’t active in the labour force, meaning they’re neither working nor looking for jobs, Statistics Canada reports. London, in particular, may have a problem with middle-aged men struggling to find another good-paying job after big industrial employers such as Kellogg, Electro-Motive Diesel and Ford shut down their plants here.

But there are other worrying undercurrents.

Many frustrated employers in the London region fret about what they see as a waning work ethic, especially among younger people. They tell similar stories of job applicants who don’t show up for interviews or, if hired, don’t bother to show up for work.

Moffatt agrees attitude is an issue.

“One of the side effects of a strong economy is that people are confident and don’t feel they have to try as hard because they can get a job somewhere else,” he said.

Manufacturing

In 45 years of making ice cream, the Chapman family has never run into anything like it.

They’re struggling to find people to work in their plant in Markdale, southeast of Owen Sound — even offering a $500 signing bonus for basic production jobs.