'Employment prospects for job seekers appear to be on the upswing'
Hiring prospects in Canada appear to be on the rise for the next quarter, according to a recent survey by ManpowerGroup.
Employers’ net employment outlook for the fourth quarter of 2020 stands at +6 per cent, 15 percentage points higher than the -10 per cent for the third quarter. This, however, is still six percentage points below the same time last year.
Twelve per cent of employers plan to increase staffing levels while nine per cent anticipate cutbacks. Meanwhile, 73 per cent expect current staffing levels to remain unchanged and six per cent are unsure of hiring intentions, found the survey of 1,200 employers across Canada.
"While Canadian employer hiring intentions remain modest, there has been a great improvement," says Darlene Minatel, country manager of ManpowerGroup Canada.
"A real benefit for jobseekers is that eight of the 10 industry sectors are expecting to add workers in the upcoming quarter, with the exceptions being the education and mining sectors. With three of the four regions of the country having positive employment outlooks for Q4, employment prospects for jobseekers appear to be on the upswing."
Canada saw overall employment rise by 246,000 (1.4 per cent) in August, compared with 419,000 (2.4 per cent) in July. Combined with gains of 1.2 million in May and June, this brought employment to within 1.1 million (5.7 per cent) of its pre-COVID February level, says Statistics Canada.
Stronger, weakest
Employers in the public administration sector report the highest industry outlook (+17 per cent) followed by those in the transportation and public utilities sector (+13 per cent) and the manufacturing non-durables sector (+12 per cent).
The mining sector anticipates a subdued outlook of -4 per cent, the weakest among all sectors.
Employers in Ontario report the strongest regional outlook of +10 per cent, 22 percentage points higher than the third quarter, and the same percentage in comparison to the same period last year.
A separate survey in August found that half of small employers in Canada are planning to rehire workers over the next three months.
