More Jobs in Calgary than People to Fill Them
January 21, 2013 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page, Wright Ideas
More Jobs in Calgary than People to Fill Them
The number of available jobs in Calgary continues to increase. In December, according to the Metro Help Wanted Index produced by the Conference Board of Canada, online job ads increased by 6.7 percent. The survey looked at 79 different job posting websites, taking into account the number of new jobs posted, while discounting the repeated offerings.
The report noted that Calgary was the only city in Western Canada that saw an increase. All other areas studies saw their job ads stabilizing. Economist Alan Arcand with the Conference Board of Canada noted that this meant hiring in Calgary would likely show a marked increase in the next few months.
Calgary also had a score below one in the labour tightness indication. This means that the number of job ads were greater than the number of unemployed people seeking work. Three other cities, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina also scored less than one. Some places in Eastern Canada saw the reverse. One is St. Catharines-Niagara where for each ad there were 9.9 people unemployed.
The fact that Alberta saw such numbers wasn’t all that surprising. The unemployment rate province wide for December was 4.5 percent, Canada’s lowest figure. That number was also lower than the 4.9 percent seen in December of 2011. Statistics Canada’s figures showed that Alberta saw 55,500 jobs created in 2012. That is over 25 percent of the jobs created nationwide.
The province’s low unemployment rate has opened up opportunities for firms that specialize in matching companies with prospective employees. Peak Technical, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opened an office in Calgary this past June, the first in Canada. It has been bringing U.S. Engineers north to fill jobs in Alberta’s energy industry.
Companies, such as KarmaHire in Vancouver, that produce online recruiting software have also shown interest, hosting online career fairs, the next being on January 24th. Right now the firm is concentrating on the technology field, but will be branching out into the energy industry.
Another idea is to court freelance drafting technicians and engineers. CAD Crowd does just this, letting companies post projects online for bids. This allows these Alberta companies to take advantage of talent found world-wide.