Employers in New Brunswick’s three largest cities anticipate a relatively optimistic employment outlook next quarter but are feeling timid when it comes to hiring, according to one staffing firm.
Mindy Stoltz, market manager for New Brunswick with ManpowerGroup Canada, said most employers surveyed plan to maintain current staffing levels in early 2021.
“73 per cent are planning to maintain them for Moncton, 57 per cent in Fredericton, which is over half, and 87 per cent in Saint John,” said Stoltz
Stoltz said many employers are feeling “very cautious” when it comes to hiring new staff in the first quarter of 2021.
Four per cent in Saint John, 14 per cent in Moncton and 18 per cent in Fredericton said they plan to do so.
“A lot of it is because of that second wave of COVID,” said Stoltz. “That’s really actually made people a little more timid because they don’t want to hire people and then turn around and have to end up laying them off.”
Stoltz said not a huge number of employers anticipate cutbacks in early 2021, which is good to see during the pandemic.
Four per cent of employers in Saint John, five per cent in Moncton and 25 per cent in Fredericton said they anticipate cutbacks.
Nationally, about 12 per cent of employers plan to increase their staffing levels in the first quarter of 2021, nine per cent anticipate cutbacks and 74 per cent expect to maintain current staffing levels. The remaining five per cent said they are unsure of their hiring intentions.
About two-in-five employers expect to return to pre-COVID hiring levels within the next 12 months while 26 per cent do not expect to ever return to those levels.
With nine of the 10 industry sectors expecting to add workers in the upcoming quarter, Stoltz said there will be opportunities for job seekers.
“They just have to really look a little bit deeper and may not completely be in the field that they’re looking for, they may have to shift gears a little bit for a little while,” she said.
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