(Toronto) Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) lost more than $38 billion in revenue opportunities last year due to labor shortages, according to estimates from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business ( CFIB).

The lack of staff has led some employers to work more hours, reduce their opening hours and refuse services or contracts, explains Laure-Anne Bomal, economist at the CFIB.

She says that even if these figures do not indicate that the Canadian economy lost billions of dollars, it is still a significant amount of revenue from which SMEs could have benefited.

The report indicates that SMEs in the construction sector experienced the greatest loss of potential business opportunities, estimated at over 9.6 billion last year, followed by that of the retail sector with an estimated loss of 3.8 billion and social services with a loss of 3.3 billion.

Quebec SMEs are the most likely to have suffered a shortfall due to lack of labor, compared to other provinces, we read in the report. One in three refused contracts.

CFIB proposed solutions in its report, including work-integrated learning in secondary schools, labor mobility between provinces and a review of existing tax policy.