Canada needs workers — so why aren't more companies hiring the neurodivergent?

The founders of a job fair for those with autism don't only want to find careers for an untapped workforce — they also hope employers will realize these highly skilled job seekers can help solve a national labour shortage. 

"People with autism are very much capable of working and they are some of the best employees," said Neil Forester who, along with his business partner Xavier Pinto, created the Spectrum Works Job Fair that ran Friday. 

Now in its sixth year, the job fair has grown from having 150 attendees to almost 2,000 job seekers with autism, all looking to connect with recruiters and hiring managers at major tech, finance, hospitality and retail companies across the country. Though it's been held in various cities, the job fair was a virtual event this year and last. 

Getting companies to take part, though, has been a struggle. 

Of the 10,000 employers Forester and his team have reached out to in the last six years, just 40 companies took part in this year's job fair. 

"The majority of the time we don't get any response," Forester said. 

The creators of the fair say they understand there is a wide range of abilities across the autism spectrum and, while perhaps not every person with autism is employable, both Forester and Pinto are confident a large portion of this community can and wants to work. 

And Forester questions why more employers aren't looking at this neurodiverse talent pool to help solve the labour shortages that so many companies are experiencing.  

In the last quarter of 2021, Canadian employers were looking to fill 915,500 jobs, up 63 per cent from the year before, according to Statistics Canada. 

And with the current unemployment rate so low, "virtually all industries are bumping up against labour shortages," wrote Royal Bank economist Nathan Janzen in an economic update this week. 

Even with the demand for workers, employment barriers remain for Canadians with autism.

Data compiled by the Public Health Agency of Canada found that in 2017 just 33 per cent of Canadian adults with autism reported being employed compared to 79 per cent of adults without a disability. 

Forester said he was unaware of just how few neurodiverse employees there are in the workforce before he started the job fair.

"I just didn't realize how big of a problem this was or how big of an issue this was to the community," he said.