Slow start to 2019 for Niagara job-seekers
Despite modest improvements in Niagara’s employment rate, the region continues to lag far behind the national average.
And projections for the months to come are not much better.
Although Niagara’s unemployment rate dropped to seven per cent in November, down from 7.3 per cent a month earlier, it remains far above the national average which dropped to 5.6 per cent in November — the lowest rate in more than 40 years.
Niagara’s youth unemployment rate was 11.1 per cent in November — down from 11.7 per cent in October, and 13.3 per cent in September.
Meanwhile, the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, published Tuesday, predicts a cold start to the new year for local job-seekers in communities throughout Niagara.
Only three per cent of St. Catharines businesses responding to the Manpower survey say they plan to hire in the first quarter of 2019, and seven per cent expect job cuts, said Manpower spokesperson Tara Benson in a media release. In Niagara Falls, seven per cent of employers plan to hire, while 13 per cent anticipate cutbacks; and in Fort Erie, seven per cent plan to hire while seven per cent plan job cuts.
While the results for both St. Catharines and Niagara Falls fall below the same time period a year earlier, Benson said the results for Fort Erie are a slight improvement, “indicating a moderate hiring pace for the upcoming months” in that community.
In comparison, Benson is predicting “a strong hiring pace for the upcoming months” in Hamilton, where 30 per cent of employers plan to hire at the start of 2019, and only three per cent anticipate staff cuts.
And across the country, Manpower ’s country manager Darlene Minatel said, job growth fell short of expectations in October.
“Employers are having difficulty finding qualified candidates to fill open jobs, which, in turn, is driving up wages but companies are also trying to do more with less to stay competitive,” Minatel said. “Employees are being asked to do more work with less pay and an increasing number of employers are investing in automation to perform labour-intensive functions.”