Coquitlam and Burnaby employers are cautiously optimistic about hiring heading into the final quarter of 2019, according to a recently released survey.
ManpowerGroup’s employment outlook survey, which is conducted nationally and locally, shows that eight per cent of Burnaby-Coquitlam area employers expect to hire during the fourth quarter of the year, while two per cent expect to roll back their employee rosters.
Meanwhile, 89 per cent plan to maintain their current staffing levels between October and December, with the final one per cent unsure.
Employment levels vary between seasons, so Manpower adjusts its employment outlook to account for those typical changes. With that in mind, the net employment outlook for Q4 2019 is plus 10 per cent – a nine percentage point decrease from the previous quarterly outlook, said Richard Plumb of Manpower’s Vancouver office.
That’s also an eight-point decrease from the same time last year, “indicating a modest hiring pace for the upcoming months,” Plumb said.
“As 2019 ends, the market for Canadian job seekers is a bit of a mixed bag. While unemployment figures were at record lows over the summer, the hiring outlook seems to be weakening in some sectors,” said Darlene Minatel, country manager for ManpowerGroup Canada.
“Companies want to remain competitive and maintain their employee levels as they go into the new year. At the same time, there is a real struggle to find and retain qualified talent.”
In a survey projecting employment trends between April and June, the Burnaby-Coquitlam region was anticipated to have the strongest labour market in all of Western Canada.
