Confidence grows as business and jobs return to the region

One of the stories of 2017 has been Alberta’s recovery from a historic recession as jobs slowly return to the province.

Employment numbers are especially pronounced in Medicine Hat, with unemployment plummeting from 12.7 per cent in June 2016 to just 4.5 per cent in June 2017, easily outpacing the province’s 7.4 per cent rate.

As Alberta’s oilpatch continues its steady recovery, the need for Medicine Hat welders, fabricators and machinists has rebounded nicely. As of this writing, essentially all Medicine Hat welding and fabrication shops have good job postings for skilled workers.

Elsewhere, Action Land is hiring four environmental service professionals for its Medicine Hat office in preparation for the province’s push into renewable energy

Entrepreneurialism is alive and well too. Medicine Hat College graduate Colton Eremenko has taken a JMH & Co entrepreneurial grant and turned it into a successful salsa business making rounds of the summer Farmers’ Market circuit. In Brier Park Industrial Estates, a new fullservice 9,000-square-foot full-service manufacturing shop has sprung up with an eye on growth. Using the oil and gas industry as a base, they are looking to expand into other sectors and grow their staff as work picks up.

On the softer side, children’s clothing company, Rustic Pickle, is riding a wave of Instagram fame to grow sales with more than 80 per cent of total volume destined for international markets and prompted a partnership with a Toronto-based clothing manufacturer.

Indeed, Medicine Hat appears to be recovering nicely from job losses sustained over the past two years. It’s still early days but confidence is up and people are back to work in Canada’s sunniest city.