By Mark Swartz
Monster Contributing Writer
Canada created 272,000 new jobs in 2012, its best showing since the recession. By year-end the unemployment rate had fallen to a four year low of 7.1 per cent.
All the jobs that had been lost in 2008-2009's meltdown have now been recovered. According to Statistics Canada (StatsCan), a closer look points to certain sectors fueling the employment engine. The financial, education, health care and social services, and manufacturing sectors posted notable gains.
Across the provinces, the increases were broadly based. Only
New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia recorded employment declines.
The national job tally is higher than the comparable 240,000 average for the previous two years of the recovery.
What follows is a more in-depth review of the past year. First we examine numbers reported by StatsCan and TD Bank Economics. Then we dig into Monster.ca's own data for trends and useful insights.
Which Sectors Did Best In 2012?
StatsCan reports that Educational services (+94,600),
finance,
insurance, real estate and leasing (+50,800), manufacturing (+60,700) and health care and social services (+46,700), threw the heavy punches in terms of job growth in 2012. For the manufacturing and financial sectors, the strong gains partially reflect rebounds from soft showings in 2011.
Which Sectors Had The Largest Declines?
Some areas of the job market underperformed, reports StatsCan. A softer housing market weighed on construction (-1,200). Professional, scientific and technical services (-34,400) registered a notable decline after posting a strong gain a year earlier. Also, not surprisingly, public administration (-10,400) was held back, dampened by the spending restraints adopted by federal and provincial governments.
Where Were The Job Gains Provincially?
TD Bank Economics reports that
Québec accounted for almost 40% of the total net employment increase in Canada. That's quite a feat, given that Québec represents just 20% of the overall job market in our country.
In terms of sectors, Québec benefited from employment gains in the manufacturing, education and health care and social services areas. This more than offset declines in transportation and warehousing, and accommodation and food services.
Ontario fared reasonably well, generating 82,500 net new jobs. The main contributor to the overall gain was the educational services sector. Manufacturing recorded a gain after a string of consecutive declines, while the financial sector built on recent increases.
In western Canada, all provinces showed gains, buoyed by increased activities in the goods-producing sector. Activity in the
primary sector (goods producing) was strong in both Saskatchewan and British Columbia, a welcomed change, as both provinces experienced employment declines in recent years in the sector. The gain in B.C. likely reflects the improving U.S. housing market and the consequent increased demand for softwood lumber.
Job creation in
Alberta was concentrated in the utilities, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, and financial sectors – notably not so much the energy sector where employment growth moderated after being a source of strength in recent years.
What Sectors Posted The Most Jobs On Monster.ca?
Job postings on Monster.ca in 2012 tended to reflect the larger employment trends noted above. Here are the sectors that posted the most jobs on our site last year, in descending order:
The number of posted jobs for Sales/Retail/Business Development exceeded second place IT/Software Development by 20 percent. In comparison, there were three times as many jobs posted for third place Administrative/Clerical jobs than for tenth place Installation/Maintenance/Repair positions.
Which Job Categories Were Most Popular on Monster.ca?
Another way to measure a job posting's popularity is to assess the number of people who view a particular category of job. It turns out that in 2012,
Biotech/R&D/Science jobs had the highest number of overall viewers per posting.
Key Quarterly Job Posting Trends on Monster.ca In 2012
By end of year (Q4 - October through December), it was jobs in Sales/Retail/Business Development topping the list. This was followed by IT/Software Development, Engineering, and Accounting/Finance/Insurance.
A Solid 2012 For Job Growth - And Monster!
It is clear that last year showed positive growth in the total number of net new jobs. This is good news for Canada's economy.
Monster.ca had an excellent year as well. Our job postings swelled over the course of 2012. This reflected an uptick in activity as employers began to hire in larger numbers again.