Job gains in Alberta top numbers for entire U.S.
Province added 22,000 jobs in June
By Kim Guttormson, Calgary Herald;
With Files From Jason Fekete, Calgary Herald, And Postmedia News
July 9, 2011
calgaryherald.com
Alberta's brisk employment growth continued in June as the province added 22,000 jobs, more than were created in the entire United States.
But with more people re-entering the job hunt and moving here in search of work, Alberta's unemployment rate actually climbed slightly, to 5.6 per cent.
"They're really strong," ATB Financial economist Dan Sumner said of the Statistics Canada job numbers released Friday. "It's a little bit surprising how strong."
The variety of jobs across a number of sectors also speaks to the health of the Alberta economy, he pointed out.
More than half the new positions created in the province last month were full-time, with 8,700 part-time jobs added.
Employment between June 2010 and last month grew 3.5 per cent, more than twice the national pace of 1.4 per cent.
"We've seen a significant change in the last couple of months," said Sheila Musgrove, head of Calgary's TAG Recruitment Group.
"We're seeing clients coming to us for new positions, and a lot more permanent positions."
Compared to a year or two ago, when companies were posting more contract and temporary jobs, Musgrove said many now have multiple openings and standing orders for certain types of hires, such as engineers or IT professionals.
"From the candidate side, it feels like it did in 2008," she said.
"All of a sudden the candidate pool is really shrinking, everyone is gainfully employed."
The Alberta government has predicted the province could face a shortage of 77,000 workers over the next decade and many companies have started ramping up their hiring.
That's something of a concern for Ted Menzies, junior federal finance minister. "I always try and avoid the boom word in Alberta because we all know what follows the boom," he said at a news conference in Calgary, worried about the potential for "the other B word" -bust. "It's slow and it's steady (growth). I think that's very important.
"We saw the troubles Alberta was facing pre-recession with labour shortages. There's parts of this country that are nowhere near a boom and we need to recognize that."
According to Statistics Canada, in June Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador lost jobs. Alongside Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia also saw job gains -Ontario added 40,000 -while the other provinces remained more or less steady.
While Canada netted 28,400 new positions, a third straight month of job gains, dismal job numbers reported in the United States -18,000, far below the estimate of 105,000 -drove down stock markets and commodity prices Friday.
Sumner called the "ugly" U.S. numbers "a little bit worrying" for Canada, while American economists used words like "disastrous," and "a shocker" to describe the report.
Stock markets were a sea of red as the dismal U.S. job growth report snuffed out hopes the American economy was on the mend from a recent slump.
The S&P/TSX composite index joined in a run of losses that extended through the world's major markets, falling 34.30 points, or 0.26 per cent to 13,371.70. Energy issues were the biggest drag on the benchmark index, as crude oil prices plunged $2.47 to $96.20 US. The Canadian dollar was little affected, ending the day down 22 basis points to $1.0409 US.
Menzies, who said the job numbers, along with seven consecutive quarters of economic growth, are "very good news," noted Canada isn't out of the economic woods just yet, because many Canadians are still struggling to find jobs and the global economic recovery remains fragile.
Barret Roulston, who moved back to Calgary from New Zealand in January with degrees in computer science and international business, has been applying for three or four positions every week, with periods where there was little to apply for.
While he starts a new job as a data analyst with a company in the oil and gas field later this month, he said the process took longer than he expected.
"It was tough," he said. |
