Job Spectrum

The recent Manpower Employment Outlook Survey shows 13 percent of the local organizations surveyed are intending to add to their head count within the upcoming three months, although five percent are intending cutbacks to staff, resulting in a net employment outlook of eight percent.

That’s up from the first-quarter NEO of three percent, but the figure represents a weaker outlook compared to the same quarter in 2010, when 18 percent of companies said they would be hiring, while 7 percent said they would be cutting payroll.

“Ottawa is a vigilantly optimistic market … After the big declines we had in 2009, the numbers since then have been following the same trends and have not been large (decreases or increases),” Manpower Ottawa’s Izabel Comeau said.

Even though Manpower doesn’t track industry-specific numbers for Ottawa, Ms. Comeau said the domestic market has been seeing the impacts of a province-wide boost in the hiring anticipations for the real estate, insurance and finance sector.

Across Ontario, the segment is expecting twenty three percent NEO for the second quarter, up from 10 percent for the previous period. As well, the public administration sector is anticipating a good employment increase, with an Ontario NEO of twenty two percent, compared to a 1stquarter NEO of zero percent, which showed an even balance between forecasted hiring activity and cutbacks.

Ms. Comeau also said that “The economy is improving, and we are seeing that in the hiring of employees, but we are not seeing booms yet. “We are not seeing anybody hiring 500 people at one point, but we are seeing companies are looking for more long-lasting (staff) and increasing (hiring) in small numbers.”