Latest job stats paint encouraging trend in Niagara
Niagara’s unemployment rate is again climbing, although there seems to be plenty of jobs available.
Stanpac Inc., for instance, is hiring, pointed out Jay Gemmell, executive director of the John Howard Society of Niagara, which runs Job Gym locations throughout the region.
The Smithville-based packaging company has several positions available as it looks for machine and forklift operators, a junior mechanic and bottle loaders, to name a few. The company has teamed up with Job Gym Employment Services for a job fair on Tuesday, June 20, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Job Gym’s office on East Main Street in Welland.
The jobs are among more than 450 listed on the Job Gym’s website — www.jobgym.com — and there’s probably at least 100 more jobs that are not being advertised, Gemmell said.
“Our job bank sees a ridiculous amount of traffic.”
Despite the availability of jobs, Statistics Canada’s latest seasonally adjusted Labour Force Survey, published Friday, shows Niagara’s unemployment was at 6.9 per cent in May.
While it’s significantly lower than the 8.4 per cent unemployment rate in June 2016, the number has increased during the first few months of this year.
After about five months of stable unemployment rates at about 6.4 per cent, the rate increased to 6.8 per cent in April before climbing to the current level. And the local unemployment rate also continues to lag behind the national rate of 6.6 per cent and provincial rate of 6.2 per cent.
Still, Gemmell called the overall trend encouraging.
“We’re seeing a fairly high level of activity from both employers, and prospective employees,” he said.
“I think there’s a sense of temperate or moderate optimism. Real estate is starting to move down here, and we’re starting to see opportunities like General Electric and Stanpac, and you go on our job bank and see all those jobs … I get a sense from talking to people that there is a tempered level of optimism.”
Brock University economics professor Felice Martinello said he advises his students against putting too much weight behind unemployment rates, which can be influenced by factors such as population growth and the number of people reaching employment age.
“The unemployment rate is actually not a very reliable number, and I could never for the life of me figure out why people pay such close attention to it because there’s so much more going on that can move it up or down,” Martinello said.
He said the Labour Force Survey results show a slight decrease in the number of people looking for work, which could reflect Niagara’s aging population and people leaving the job market for retirements.
“The declining labour force participation due to the general aging of the labour force is definitely contributing to the lower unemployment rates that we see,” Martinello said.
Nevertheless, Regional Chairman Alan Caslin remains enthusiastic about the data.
“I think the labour market is still quite strong and now that we’re heading into the summer season,” he said, “I think we’re going to experience even lower number in unemployment. I’m pleased with the results, and they can only get stronger for Niagara.”
ManpowerGroup Employment Services has noted a modest improvement in the number of employers that are putting up help wanted signs.
An Outlook Survey published by the company Tuesday said about 23 per cent of St. Catharines area employers are planning to hire workers this summer, while about 70 per cent are content with current staffing levels. About seven per cent anticipate layoffs.
Erica Melarangeli from Manpower’s St. Catharines office described the modest increase as a “fair hiring pace for the upcoming months.”
And after decades of decline, Gemmell said the news is welcome.
Gemmell recalled the late 1980s, when jobs started disappearing throughout the region.
At the time, he said, there was “some real trepidation of where Niagara was going to end up.”
“I think it probably took some time, but the fact that we are still standing here is part of the reason you’re seeing it finally upswing.”