It jobs in Canada

Looking for work? You’re in luck; employers seem to be in a hiring mood. There were more than half a million-job openings in Canada in November, a 22% jump over the same period last year, according to new data from Workopolis.

The online job site is reporting year-over-year increases in job postings in every employment category and every region of the country, except Quebec where the number of job postings declined 4%.

While the latest employment figures out of Ottawa show Canada added 21, 600 jobs November, led by part-time positions in Alberta, Workopolis’ data casts forward to give us a glimpse of what the job market will be in the months to come.

“We are continuing to see slow and steady progress as far as the number of jobs available, ” says Tara Talbot, Workopolis’ vice-president of human resources. Not only is the country’s unemployment rate holding steady at a 5-year low of 6.9%, Ontario unemployment rate is also now at it’s own five-year of 7.2%.

It’s progress, but there is more improvement, notes Dawn Desjardins, RBC’s assistant chief economist, in a commentary on the latest employment figures from Statistics Canada. She writes: “while these back-to-back gains will chip away at the output gap, the economy will need to maintain this pace over the next couple of years to reach full capacity and eliminate the slack in labour markets”

Based on Workopolis’ data there doesn’t appear to be any reason to expect a break in that trend. The online-job site is projected more positive growth in the New Year.

Broadly speaking, employers across Canada appear to be hanging the help wanted sign more than they were a year ago, particularly in the West. Last month the western provinces had more than 218, 000 job postings, representing more than 40% of all the job openings in the country.

The job environment in the West, particularly in Alberta and Saskatchewan, continues to be so strong that they are trying to poach workers to fill those vacancies anyway they can. “Employers from the west are posting in Ontario looking for employees with upward mobility, ” notes Talbot. “People need to be quite creative in terms of how they are tapping into the labour force.”