Alberta Has Weakest Hiring Rate; More People Claim Employment Insurance

Small businesses in Alberta recorded another month of experiencing the lowest optimism rate in the whole Canada when it comes to business outlook. Alberta’s hiring plans were also at the weakest according to the latest Business Barometer survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, or CFIB.

In the survey released Thursday, Alberta retained its previous month’s 48.1, which is “more than 25 points below its peak in October,” indicating that the small businesses ceased in down sliding their business outlook.

“The good news is that the freefall we’ve experienced in business confidence has halted. It’s not sliding even further which is the good news. Those expecting next year’s performance to be weaker currently outnumber those anticipating a strong year so that’s a concern,” CFIB’s senior policy analyst Amber Ruddy told Calgary Herald.

Business Barometer also reported that not more than 20 percent of entrepreneurs who participated in the survey this March planned on employing full-time staff in the next three months and 13 percent of business owners planned on cutting back employees. CFIB rationalised there is seasonality in hiring but despite how the economy is going, business owners are doing everything to keep their valued employees; they just do not have the appetite for hiring more people. Nonetheless, Alberta has already proved it can rebound from similar situations.

More Claims For Employment Insurance

The effect of low hiring rate in Alberta is also evident by the increase number of people receiving regular Employment Insurance benefits as reported by Statistics Canada. As of January in Alberta, there were 31,000 people who received benefits. The figure is up by 2.4 percent from the previous month. Edmonton reported an increase by 3.6 percent while Calgary had a little gain.

It was also revealed that of the beneficiaries who received the Employment Insurance, +6.5 percent of them listed primary industry as their last occupation, +5.6 percent reported to have last worked at natural and applied sciences industry and +4.5 percent recorded trades, transport and equipment operators industry as their final place of work.

The Employment Insurance report issued monthly by Statistics Canada is one primary indicator of the job market. The others are the labour Force Survey and Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours.