There is a triple whammy working against businesses these days – inflation, supply chain interruption and labour availability.
With inflation, there are the first signals that higher interest rates may be having an effect. Those signals come from the U.S. where inflation fell ever so slightly in April from March. No one thinks it is a trend yet, but they are watching closely.
As for supply chain interruption, a new report from ScotiaBank says polls of business leaders suggest they think this will last a long time and is not simply a disruption caused by COVID.
Finally, when it comes to labour availability, job vacancies are highlighted in the ScotiaBank report. It states this is the time for small businesses to invest in innovation.
Canada is generally a laggard in global productivity measurements as business is slow to introduce new technology or processes. Some worry this will displace workers but, given that there are not enough workers to go around these days, the pressure to invest in replacing workers with machines may be rising.
