Against the headwind of a U.S. recession, Canada continued to add jobs in October. In fact, over the past three months, full-time employment is up by 75,000 jobs, compared to an increase of just 36,300 between January and July 2008.

Across the country, the strength of labour demand, as reflected by the unemployment rate in the country’s 27 census metropolitan areas (CMA), had a strong western bias.

Indeed, all five of the CMAs with the lowest unemployment rates were located in the three western-most provinces. At the top of the list was Victoria, British Columbia, where the unemployment rate has been stuck at 3.2% for the past four months.

The second-tightest labour market in the country was in Edmonton, where the unemployment rate was 3.4%. In third place was Calgary at 3.8%. Edmonton’s unemployment rate has been trending steadily lower since the beginning of the year, whereas Calgary’s jobless rate has been creeping steadily higher over the same period.

In Saskatchewan, Regina and Saskatoon rank as the fourth- and fifth-tightest labour markets in the country, with unemployment rates of 4.0% and 4.1% respectively. It is worth noting that, according to Manpower Canada’s most recent survey of fourth-quarter hiring intentions, Regina and Calgary ranked highest in terms of net hiring plans.

Looking ahead, the recent sharp drop in energy prices, together with the announcements by a number of major energy producers that they intend to scale back their investment plans in 2009, suggest that the number of Help Wanted signs in the energized western provinces will soon shrink.

However, the large number of projects currently underway, plus significant shortages of skilled workers outside the energy industry, should support labour demand, particularly in Saskatchewan and British Columbia, over the near term.

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