Victoria roofing companies looking south to fill jobs
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 appetitie 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," said Kael Campbell, who operates Red Seal Recuiting 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-than-expected employment numbers out of the U.S. will stave off an early move by the Bank of Canada to trim interest rates.
