The federal government says changes to the Employment Insurance system are meant to encourage more Canadians to work but some employers say the real problem is that there aren't enough skilled workers to go around in the first place.

Phil Jacqueimen has been a mason for 38 years, but as Halifax is experiencing a major construction boom, there aren't enough workers like Jacqueimen to go around.

"There's nobody coming up to take our place in the trades, the older guys, the average age in the union hall I think is 57years old," says Jacqueimen. "And there's nobody that wants to put in for what was a two-year course, it might now be a four-year course, and I know it's a four-year apprenticeship now."

There are similar shortages in other trades as well, such as bricklayers and sheet-metal workers.

Alex Halif is a Halifax-area developer who has four projects on the go in the municipality. He hopes to complete the projects by the end of this year but he has been told by contractors that some work will have to wait because they don't have enough skilled workers.

Halif is hoping Human Resources and Skills Development Canada can work with Immigration Canada to ease the pressure by bringing in trained foreign workers.

"That's where the HRDC can come and work with the contractors, and developers too can help this out, and that's where immigration can help bring in these workers," says Halif.

The Nova Scotia Construction Association says tradespeople have been unfairly labeled as social inferiors in our society.

"You have to be able to calculate on the spot, you have to manage projects, people, you have to be able to meet deadlines, you have to show up on time. It's not a rag-tag group," says association spokesperson Duncan Williams.

Jacqueimen says it has been difficult to get a masonry apprenticeship in the past, but he says that is no longer the case.

"If I had a good apprentice, one that wants to learn stone work with me, I'd teach him," says Jacqueimen. "It doesn't matter where he came from."

Jacqueimen says he is trying to encourage young people to get a trade before pursuing other post-secondary education, so they have something to fall back on.

He also says he is so busy he has to turn down work, and he hates to do that, especially when the hourly rates run from $25 to $32 an hour.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ron Shaw