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Canadian Employment Numbers as of December 2013

Alberta continues to lead the way with employment across Canada along with Private Sector employers across the country. One of the bright spots in November was over 25,000 additional people were employed in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing is where Red Seal has also seen strong hiring growth in the past 12 months.
Alberta added 11,000 jobs in November which was not enough to reduce unemployment, but at 4.7% it remains relatively low compared to eastern Canada. Business, buildings and other support services saw the largest growth in employment with 31,200 jobs across the country. One problem spot was that construction employment was down across Canada, possibly due a slowdown in oil sands construction, due to pipeline delays.
Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate was up slightly due in part to several thousand people migrating into arguably the hottest job market in Canada.
British Columbia’s employment was down and we had net migration into the Province, resulting in a rise in the unemployment rate to 6.7%.
Interestingly in a November meeting with the President of a BC Construction company, the President said it was impossible to find enough skilled workers or young people willing to work hard on projects.  With good union wages and benefits I was surprised when a young man resigned from this employer, while I was in the office, and added himself to list of unemployed British Columbians. The young man’s explanation was he planned to go back to school in September, of next year! It doesn’t make sense to spend 11 months under-employed, maybe this is part of the youth unemployment rate problems in Canada?

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