Vancouver’s hiring outlook has jumped up for 2012’s second quarter, following a quiet outlook for the current quarter, according to the just-released Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
The report pegged Vancouver at a net hiring employment outlook of 19% – meaning that a net total of 19% of Vancouver employers plan to hire this quarter, after subtracting the employers who plan to lay off staff.
“Vancouver is looking fantastic,” said Jeff Polkinghorne, branch manager of Manpower Vancouver, noting that the city’s outlook this quarter was just 1%.
“The construction industry is still booming; you can see it when you drive down the road on any given day. The mining industry in Alberta seems to be driving it a lot just because there’s a lot of mining companies based out of the downtown core and they’re booming right now from new oil fields that are in Alberta.”
He added that Vancouver’s large communication companies are “doing some major hiring” all through 2012.
In the Lower Mainland, Polkinghorne noted that Richmond and Delta have substantial hiring intentions this year. The two cities, which are lumped together in the survey results, have a collective hiring outlook of 32% for the upcoming quarter, up from 20% this quarter.
“Surrey, surprisingly, is down,” he added, noting that the city’s outlook has dropped to 3% for the upcoming quarter from 13% in the current quarter.
