Folks on the lookout for jobs in Atlantic Canada may be encouraged to know businesses are seemingly more optimistic about their hiring plans.
According to a new employment outlook survey from ManpowerGroup Canada, the net employment outlook (NEO) — a unit measuring the difference between employers' intentions to hire staff and execute layoffs — is +4 per cent for Atlantic Canada in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Hiring intentions for the region were up five percentage points compared to the previous quarter, but down eight percentage points compared to the same quarter in 2019.
Looking at different urban centres in the four Atlantic provinces, most of those surveyed expect to see their payrolls grow for October through to the end of the year. The NEOs were highest for Cape Breton, N.S. (+8 per cent) and Charlottetown (+7 per cent). Fredericton was next at +6 per cent, followed by St. John's at +5 per cent and Saint John, N.B. at +3 per cent. Meanwhile, Halifax was the only city in Atlantic Canada reporting expectations of payroll decline, with survey results showing an NEO of -7 percent.
When comparing fourth quarter NEOs with third quarter results for 2020, St. John's experienced the most growth with a 20-percentage point increase, followed by Halifax (+2 percentage points) and Cape Breton and Charlottetown (both at +1 percentage point). Due to sample size, there was no data for Fredericton in the third quarter survey.
For the Atlantic region, workforce gains are anticipated in the fourth quarter for nine of the 10 industry sectors, with hiring prospects the strongest for the manufacturing and non-durables sector, which recorded an NEO of +18 per cent. The public administration sector (+17 per cent) and the finance, insurance and real estate sector (+16 per cent) also reported strong hiring outlooks. The only sector with a negative hiring outlook for the region was mining (-9 per cent).
National data
Nationally, the survey shows a six per cent increase in the country’s hiring outlook for the fourth quarter, which is a 15-percentage point increase from the third quarter. Three of the four regions in Canada have positive employment outlooks for the upcoming quarter. Ontario had the strongest regional outlook (+10 per cent), although hiring prospects for Western Canada (+4 per cent, tying Atlantic Canada) are more subdued. Job seekers in Quebec (-3 per cent) were planning for a weak hiring climate, the survey noted.
It’s still a modest hiring pace. The survey of more than 1,200 employers across the country shows that 12 per cent of employers plan to increase their staffing levels in the fourth quarter, while 9 per cent anticipate cutbacks. Meanwhile, 73 per cent of the employers surveyed expect their current staffing levels to remain unchanged, while the remaining 6 per cent are unsure of their hiring intentions.
Canada’s job prospects in the fourth quarter are the sixth best among 41 countries surveyed by Manpower. Taiwan companies were the most bullish (with 20 per cent expecting to raise staffing levels), with the United States (14 per cent), Turkey (10 per cent), Japan (9 per cent) and Greece (8 per cent) filling out the list of the five countries with the most bullish employers.
For the twelfth consecutive quarter, employer confidence is stronger in the U.S. than elsewhere in the Americas, with final quarter hiring prospects recovering in 11 of 12 industry sectors compared with the third quarter of 2020, according to the survey.
Employers in the U.S.’s leisure & hospitality, transportation and utilities and wholesale and retail trade sectors had the most optimistic hiring intentions, with the Midwest indicating the strongest regional hiring pace.
— With files from Postmedia
