Hiring confidence in Alberta remains flat: Survey

Hiring confidence in Alberta remains flat for the second half of 2016, according to a survey by the Human Resources Institute of Alberta (HRIA).

Forty-five per cent of respondents indicated they expect their organization’s total number of employees in Alberta to remain the same over the next six months.

“However, for the 25 per cent of respondents who indicated that they expect their total number of employees to increase over the same time period, the upside is that a majority of human resources professionals are confident that they can find workers with equivalent experience and qualifications to fill open positions,” said HRIA's interim CEO, Janice MacPherson. 

The percentage of respondents expecting the total number of employees to increase in Alberta is the second lowest in Western Canada, and below the Western Canadian average, found the survey of 839 respondents in Alberta and the Western Canada survey of1,900 respondents.

“Hiring levels clearly are not going to be recovering until 2017 at the earliest,” she said.

Oil and gas organizations saw a slight increase in the index. In contrast, both professional, scientific and technical services, and public administration and government organizations saw a decrease in the index compared to the previous six months, with the public administration and government sector experiencing the greatest decline, said HRIA.

How confident are organizations they can find the right people?

Number of organizations expecting to hire more employees