Nation's jobless rate at 30-year low
Victoria is third hardest working city, behind only Calgary and Saskatoon
Victoria roofing companies are ready to recruit in the Philippines and Mexico and construction firms were combing Europe and Australia and hoping the mild weather turns nasty in Eastern Canada.
The insatiable appetite for workers in the capital region is showing no signs of relief as Help Wanted signs continue to clutter every sector of the economy.
Victoria's unemployment rate dipped again in December -- from 3.8 per cent to 3.6 -- and remained one of the hardest working cities in the nation behind only Calgary, at 2.6 per cent, and Saskatoon, at 3.3.
"It's super busy out there," says Kael Campbell, who operates Red Seal Recruiting in Victoria, a job placement agency for skilled trades. "I'll tell you, everyone who wants to work is working out there. A lot of my customers are looking overseas because there's nobody left here to fill the jobs they have." A stunning year-end surge in employment washed across Canada's weakening economy and knocked the national jobless rate back down to a 30-year low, according to report yesterday by Statistics Canada.
The labour market created 62,000 jobs across Canada -- four times what analysts had expected -- and reduced the jobless rate two notches to 6.1 per cent in December.
The news helped reverse the recent slide in the Canadian dollar, but failed to stop a further steep drop in the benchmark index of Canadian stock prices.
Economists also suggested the strong job growth nationally and better-thanexpected employment numbers out of the U.S. could stave off an early move by the Bank of Canada to trim interest rates.
In 2006, the job gains were led by the oil-fuelled economy of Alberta, where employment increased by six per cent, and by above-average job growth in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
B.C's economy added 10,000 jobs in December, pushing employment to a record high while paring unemployment to a 30-year low. According to StatsCan, 62.7 per cent of all working-age British Columbians between the ages of 15 and 65 earned paycheques last year. For the year, B.C. added 51,000 jobs -- of which four out of every five were full time -- a 2.4 per cent increase over 2005.
In the Victoria census area, 178,200 people were working last year compared with 169,400 during 2005, according to Statistics Canada. The majority of the new jobs were in the services sector, which includes health care and restaurant and accommodation jobs, and the utilities sector, which includes construction.
Ken Stratford, economic development officer for Victoria, said in-migration from other provinces has buoyed the local labour market, helping to fill tourism, restaurant and construction jobs. As the birth rate plummets and baby boomers retire, Stratford said Greater Victoria's 16,000 small businesses have to change the way they view labour and focus on retention of staff. "Everyone has to become a magnet company -- that is all businesses have to re-examine everything about their organizations to say why would a worker choose this business and what would make them stay."
Stratford said it is the only way to ward off employee poaching, which has become common, and incentives such as bounties paid to current workers for recruiting and signing bonuses.
Knappett Projects Inc., a Victoria construction company, has already brought four carpenters over from England and a project manager from Australia. Human resources manager Patti Faulconbridge said the company is also using a giant billboard on the Pat Bay Highway to attract workers. "We have 12 job sites on the Island right now and 175 workers but we could always use more," she said. "We're starting to see some come from Alberta and that's good."
B.C.'s unemployment closed the year at 5.2 per cent, after dipping to 4.3 per cent in June.
Nationally, employment grew by 2.1 per cent or 345,000 jobs in 2006, the highest growth rate since 2002 and the 14th consecutive year of employment increases in Canada.
The job growth also helped to boost workers' earnings. Average hourly wages stood at an estimated $20 in December, an increase of 2.6 per cent from 12 months ago. However, wage growth in B.C. remained muted at only 1.5 per cent, partly reflecting the province's weak productivity performance.
