The Statistics Canada reported on Friday that more than 135,000 people found full-time employment during the month. This offset a reduction of 96,000 part-time jobs. Unemployment fell for the third month in a row, reaching its lowest level since comparable record-keeping began in 1976. May’s increase in employment adds to the expansion the Canadian economy has seen in recent months. After losing more than three million jobs in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada’s labor market has been slowly and steadily recovering.
Demand for employees is growing
By November 2021, Canada finally had the same number of employees as it had before the pandemic. When May numbers are included, he now has half a million more than he did then. The balance between job vacancies and employees has shifted almost completely from balance to a balance where employers can not find enough people to work. “As we begin the yard-filling ritual and take to the streets for late vacations, employers continue to look for workers to meet the growing demand,” TD Bank economist James Orlando told the numbers. “This has record job vacancies, making it clear that the Canadian economy is operating beyond full-time employment.” Serving staff appear at The Canadian Brewhouse’s newest location in Victoria. The nationwide restaurant chain has hired 800 new people in recent months, to meet consumer demand for food outside. (Mike McArthur / CBC) Statistics Canada shows that the ratio of unemployed to job vacancies has reached a record low of 1.2. As vice president of human resources at The Canadian Brewhouse, a restaurant chain with 42 locations across Canada, James Martyn knows first hand how tight the job market is right now. Like many hospitality companies, Brewhouse has been downsizing due to the pandemic, but in recent months the chain has begun to grow again to meet consumer demand for food outside. Even with competitive salaries and regularly scheduled increases, Martyn says it’s a challenge to retain and grow staff, but he’s pleased the chain has recruited about 800 new people in the past two months, including a brand new Victoria location has a larger rooftop terrace in Western Canada. “A lot of people, even if they keep coming back to work, go to places where they can work from home,” he said in an interview. “I do not think there is anything inherently wrong with this. But it provokes entrepreneurs, especially if you have a business like hosting where there is no work from home.” This demand for workers is also pushing up wages. The data service says the average hourly wage rose by $ 1.18 last year to $ 31.12 an hour. This is an increase of 3.9%. Although an impressive clip for historical standards, it is still very low from the country’s official inflation rate of 6.8 percent.
Unprecedented leverage
Employees have unprecedented leverage right now, and many of them are looking for higher pay positions – and getting them. Ellen Yifan Chen was a lawyer at a large company in Montreal who recently made the leap to a new job as a general consultant at a technology company based in Quebec. It has had to change from the same factors that drive many people, such as flexibility, new challenges and the ability to work from home. But in the end, dollars and cents were a big difference. Ellen Yifan Chen recently moved to a new job in Quebec City after working for a Montreal-based law firm. (Genevieve Poulenc / CBC) “I managed to get a raise in my salary as well as a signing bonus,” Chen said in an interview. “I would say it was a great motivation for me to finally get the jump. As a lawyer at a large company, Chen said she was told for years to wait for her compensation to be a dip if she decided to go elsewhere, but says she has noticed a big change in her industry lately. “For the past six months, I’ve been hearing offers from hiring staff that either fit or are higher than my previous salary,” he said. “Many of my friends also change jobs. I looked at LinkedIn almost every day and someone [was] change of jobs “. Higher wages and plenty of job options are great news for employees, but less so for central bankers tasked with curbing dramatic inflation. “It’s an undesirable sign for the Bank of Canada, as higher wages increase consumer demand and therefore inflation,” said Jay Zhao-Murray, an analyst at foreign exchange firm Monex. “A tight labor market where workers have more bargaining power suggests even higher wage increases on the line. Without any slowdown in wage growth, central bankers will continue to worry that the hot labor market is doing their job to reduce inflation even further. harder .”
