Hope for the Canadian job market

Statistic Canada’s Labour Market Survey results indicate that Canada’s job market is still struggling for growth, but a glimmer of hope has been seen by Randstad Canada, the country’s leader for staffing, recruitment and HR Services.

The latest report by StatsCan indicated that the economy shed 2,800 jobs in February and that the country’s unemployment rate dropped by 0.2%, to 7.4%, due to the declining number of Canadians looking for work.

Regarding specific industries, StatsCan data reports that the biggest losses last month were seen in the wholesale trade and retail sectors, with losses of approximately 37,000 workers.

Transportation and warehousing, as well as health care and social assistance followed, with both categories losing approximately 22,000 jobs.

However, Jan Hein Bax, president of Randstad Canada, has seen a steady increase in contract demand over the last few months.

“There was a slight 2% increase from January to February of this year, but a moderate increase of 31% was seen in January alone, compared to December 2011’s numbers,” he says.

And while the economic numbers may appear grim, Bax has stressed that opportunities are still available.

“As we’ve seen in the past during difficult economic times, businesses rely more heavily on contract or temporary hiring to adjust to market uncertainties.” he says, “[These opportunities] still provide some good options for job seekers within certain industries and specializations. “

The Labour Force Survey results also highlight some areas where employment rose. Finance, insurance, real estate and leasing added 41,000 new jobs to the economy.

Modest growth was also seen in educational services, business, and building and other support services, as well as natural resources, construction and manufacturing.

Based on Randstad’s figures, there were significant increases in the financial services industry, which is up by 52%. It also reported increases in government and non-profit industries (19%) and the telecommunications industry (16%) since January.

The most in-demand job roles currently are architects, which rose by 21%, and support roles, which rose by 19%.