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| Stonebridge, Saskatoon, Stonebridge subdivision Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Adzuna, a U.K.-based job-search engine, has recently expanded to help Canadians find work, too.
After "some serious number crunching" — Adzuna compared their data from 36 Canadian job websites with the latest Employment Insurance and unemployment statistics — the site determined the 45 best and worst places to find a job in Canada.
In top spot: Saskatoon, where there are just 4.4 job seekers per vacancy.
Other great places to find work include Nanaimo, Kamloops, Winnipeg and Regina.
"Nanaimo is a service centre for the mid-Island, a transportation hub, a draw for tourists and we have a growing technology sector developing here so, unlike other Canadian cities, our economy is not overly reliant on any one sector," says Sasha Angus, head of the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation.
If you're looking for work in the St. Catharines-Niagara area, however, be prepared for some major competition: there are currently 99.9 jobseekers per job vacancy, in part due to factory closings and fewer tourists from south of the border.
Other tough places to find work include the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo region (where Research in Motion has been cutting jobs), Cape Breton, Oshawa and Windsor.
These results are somewhat surprising. In Windsor, where the unemployment rate is at 9.2 per cent, there are 27 job seekers for every posting. But in Waterloo Region, where the unemployment rate is at a considerably lower 7.1 per cent, there are 73 job seekers for every posting, the Record reports.
These stats may be reflecting a mismatch between the skills job seekers have and the jobs that are currently available, argues Art Sinclair, Waterloo Region's Chamber of Commerce's vice-president.
"It is a problem across Canada that there are jobs available but there is not a match between the people looking for jobs and the jobs that are available," Sinclair tells the Record. "That trend may be more accentuated here in Waterloo Region."
"There are vacancies in information technology here, of course, but those jobs require a pretty specialized skill set," he says.
The nationwide survey also found that Montreal is a great place for students and recent graduates, as9 per cent of job postings are for graduate positions or summer internships.
Jobs in sales comprised the top hiring sector in Canada, with 8,567 jobs currently available at an average annual salary of $45,302, the report lists.
The greatest growth in the job market is being seen in the information/technology and renewable-energy sectors. Adzuna forecasts 84,000 job opportunities being created in this areas by the end of 2013.
Adzuna country manager James Maskell acknowledges that not every job is posted on job boards — it's almost impossible to measure word-of-mouth and social-media-posted vacancies — but believes Adzuna's database of 100,000 jobs is large enough to accurately outline job trends.
"We have good coverage and are confident that our numbers are correct," Maskell says.
Adzuna lists real-time vacancies for job-seekers, like a news aggregator for jobs.
"Our main pitch is that we collect as many jobs as we possibly can from the Internet," Maskell tells theCambridge Times. "We bring them together in one place and make them searchable, very much kind of like a Google, but just for jobs."
This "gives us an up-to-the-minute view of how the employment market is changing across the country," Andrew Hunter, the company’s co-founder, tells the Globe and Mail. “In times of economic uncertainty, job seekers should be looking to arm themselves with data to help them target their job search in parts of Canada where they have the best possible chance of finding work.”
The Globe and Mail's Tavia Grant writes that Adzuna's information about the Canadian job market fills a void in this country's employment statistics:
"Detailed public information about current job demand has been in short supply in Canada. Statistics Canada releases data on vacancy trends, but it is by province, while the Conference Board’s help-wanted index tracks change, but not by industry. It’s a vital piece of missing information about the labour market, as these data can help job seekers make more informed decisions on whether to move, stay put or, in some cases, change careers."
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