Positive short-term job prospects for St. John’s: report

St. John’s is one of Canada’s few major metropolitan area with positive short-term job prospects, according to a new report.

The monthly Help-wanted index by the Conference Board of Canada measures new job postings online during the month across 79 job-posting websites. In June, St. John’s was one of five markets examined — along with Quebec’s Québec City, Trois-rivières and Sherbrooke, and Thunder Bay, Ont. — with positive nearterm employment prospects.

The board didn’t provide a figure for the St. John’s area, but board economist Alan Arcand said the number of job postings was up eight per cent last month.

“What this report’s trying to do is predict very near-term outlook for the labour market, so really the next month,” he said, adding that Newfoundland and Labrador’s mining and oil industries could be a factor.

Over the last year, job creation — 181,000 jobs added to the Canadian economy — has been strongest in provinces rich in natural resources, including Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, although every western metropolitan survey showed a drop in short-term prospects in June.

Overall, notes the board, the West’s economic outlook is bright, so the softening of job prospects in june is “more likely to be a temporary pause than the beginning of any downward trend,” according to the report, released Monday.

“The labour market’s very mobile, from month to month,” said Arcand. “Even amidst an uptrend in job prospects or job growth, you’ll see down months once in a while.”