As an IT staffing company these numbers are very encouraging. Almost all of the jobs that were eliminated during 2008-2009 recession have been replaced. Ontario is still lagging behind some of our industry-rich provinces at this point.
Increased number of jobs will likely push the unemployment rates down a bit. The unemployment rate for technology jobs is 3.1% according to a study by Statistics Canada in December, while the overall unemployment rate is 7.5%. In the staffing world this is a good thing for agencies since many of our friends that are corporate recruiters are fighting for the same people. Once of the other challenges around the low rate of unemployment for IT jobs is new technologies are being invented all the time. This causes companies to scramble to keep up with staffing people for all the new technologies.
A few factors that we need to keep in mind with these great new job numbers:
- Six months of slow job growth, before the March and April bounce
- Job creation was very strong, while growth in average income is barely keeping pace with inflation
- GDP growth was forecasted in the 2.5% level by Bank of Canada but closer to 1.6%
- If GDP does not grow it will be difficult to sustain long term job growth
It would be interesting to see the breakdown by job sector. Overall it is great that Canada is generating more job growth. We are quite a ways ahead of United States in our job growth. Europe is a wild card that could affect the world’s economy depending on what happens in Spain and Greece over the next few months.
Are you seeing more jobs being added at your company? Do you think the unemployment rate for IT jobs will continue to go down?
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