With the influx of new immigrants into Alberta, Calgary's job market has entered strange territory, with record levels of employment and surging levels of unemployment in Calgary!
The unemployment rate reportedly surged to 6.5% in March, up 0.4 percentage points from February. It is important to note that this increase is not due to an increase in the number of unemployed, but to a surge in the number of job seekers.
According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, about 64,500 people in the Calgary metropolitan area are looking for work, the highest level in nearly two years. At the same time, employment reached 931,600, the highest level ever in the history of Carena!
"There is no doubt that there is a huge influx of newcomers into the job market here. Cristina Schultz of About Staffing, a Calgary recruitment and employment agency, said. One trend she's been observing lately is that people choose to come to Calgary to look for work, mainly because they think the cost of living is relatively low, even if they don't have a formal job offer.
"The cost of living in Calgary is a major factor that attracts people to come here looking for a job market," she said. "More and more often, we're seeing people venture out to relocate after they arrive and look for work after that. ”
So far this year, the number of people who do not participate in the labor market (i.e., people who neither work nor look for work) has also declined, decreasing every month.
Alicia Planincic, an economist at the Alberta Business Council, said Alberta's current attractive mix of housing prices and employment opportunities is attracting newcomers, particularly from the more expensive housing markets in Ontario and British Columbia. Despite the recent spike in home prices in Calgary, they are still well below those in the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto areas.
She noted that many industries in Alberta are rushing to hire new employees, which makes it easier for people with the right skills to relocate.
"The construction industry has the highest job vacancy rate in Alberta, well above the national average. Planincic said. "Part of the reason is because so many people are moving here, which is driving a greater demand for housing, so builders are struggling to cope with that demand. ”
The Alberta Business Council released a report this week showing that "Alberta is the only major province where private sector employment growth is greater than that of the public sector". "Over the past year, private sector employment in Alberta has grown five times faster than the national average," the report states. ”
On the other hand, there is increasing competition for finding a job, which makes it more challenging for people who live in Calgary for a long time to find a job.
"There's definitely a lot more competition," Schultz said. "What used to be the pool of candidates that you would face as a resident is now two to three times as many applicants — those from outside the province or abroad — who bring different skills, different educations, and different backgrounds. ”
While there will be ups and downs from one month to the next, the job vacancy rate in Alberta has generally shown a downward trend over the past few years due to population growth. This indicates that it is becoming more difficult for the unemployed to find a job, but it also indicates that employers are finding the people they need to fill positions.
Overall, Schultz believes that recent labor market trends are positive for the city. "There are more job opportunities. There are also more people who are qualified for these jobs. That's the good news. ”
Calgary's job market has been extremely difficult in recent years, especially for graduating college students and newcomers to the workforce. Some netizens shared their plight in finding a job in the discussion forum, revealing the harsh reality of the current job market.
In the past, students in Calgartz have been offered real job opportunities by doing paid internships, expanding their relationships, and working hard. However, now, some students struggle to even get an internship interview. Apart from finding some part-time jobs in some well-known chains such as Superstore, they are almost unable to find other jobs, which is a worrying situation.
Netizens agree that the current job market in Carena is extremely difficult. Some have said that if you or your family graduate in the next 5 years, you will compete with thousands of job seekers for entry-level positions. Since the start of the pandemic, Calgary has welcomed a large number of new immigrants, which will cause serious problems in the future job market, especially for new graduates, facing greater competitive pressure.
Some residents believe that the job market in Calgah is already very bad, and that mass immigration will make it worse. Some people say that they have been trying for a year and four months, but they still can't find a suitable job, and they can't even count how many applications they have submitted.
One graduate shared his experience when he said he had just graduated from SAIT and had submitted more than 500 resumes, each accompanied by a well-crafted cover letter, but had not received any interview notices or responses.
It's so hard!