Toronto area - employment situation

randompal 7 | 306

8 Dec 2008 / #1

I have just heard from people who have relatives in Canada that the employment situation is "drastic" and that "only the lucky few in Canada have jobs." I took this to be uninformed doomsday talk - any basis for this kind of talk, especially in the Toronto area?

Shawn_H

8 Dec 2008 / #2

Manufacturing jobs are declining as the US Economy sours. Particularly hard hit is the Automotive sector - Go figure....

google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5h36Jc4MqN976wSOaAcKitw3j3T5g

Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities but cautions the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. (Previous month in brackets.)

-St. John's, N.L. 7.6 per cent (7.6)
-Halifax 5.2 (5.3)
-Saint John, N.B. 6.1 (6.1)
-Saguenay, Que. 7.3 (7.6)
-Quebec 4.3 (4.4)
-Trois-Rivieres, Que. 6.6 (7.5)
-Sherbrooke, Que. 6.5 (6.5)
-Montreal 7.5 (7.4)
-Gatineau, Que. 4.7 (5.1)
-Ottawa 4.7 (4.8)
-Kingston, Ont. 4.7 (5.8)
-Toronto 7.0 (6.8)
-Hamilton 6.5 (5.7)
-Kitchener, Ont. 6.5 (5.3)
-London, Ont. 6.9 (6.8)
-Oshawa, Ont. 7.8 (7.2)
-St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 8.2 (7.7)
-Sudbury, Ont. 5.7 (5.8)
-Thunder Bay, Ont. 5.7 (5.4)
-Windsor, Ont. 10.1 (10.1)
-Winnipeg 4.6 (4.6)
-Regina 3.6 (4.0)
-Saskatoon 4.1 (4.1)
-Calgary 3.7 (3.8)
-Edmonton 3.6 (3.4)
-Abbotsford, B.C. 5.2 (4.8)
-Vancouver 4.4 (4.3)
-Victoria 3.3 (3.2)

OP randompal 7 | 306

8 Dec 2008 / #3

Why are Edmonton and Calgary, for example, doing so well? Toronto's is quite higher..

Shawn_H

8 Dec 2008 / #4

Oil sands industry. They have been constructing large processing complexes for quite some time. They cannot turn off the construction of committed projects, but with the dip in the price of oil, many companies are holding back on projects not yet underway.

There are loads of people who work in the Alberta oil fields that are three weeks on (21 days - 12 hours each) then off for two that commute across the country. There has been recent discoveries of oil on the east coast, and many of these commuters are now looking for work closer to home.