By Melanie Clerk
Ottawa’s recent job boom has increased opportunities for the unemployed, but has left employers scrambling to fill empty positions.
“It’s tough when you walk around the city and every store has help wanted signs,” says Greg Bugler, human resources manager at The Bay on Rideau Street. “It’s a buyer’s and an employee’s market out there with too much choice for job-seekers.”
Stephen Tanner, general manager at Staples Business Depot on Bank Street, says two or three years ago he had applicants coming into the store who were overqualified for retail.
“There would be teachers and people with PhDs wanting jobs because there just wasn’t anything worthwhile out there for them,” he says. “Now, we’re hardly getting anyone through the door.”
Tanner also says it’s difficult to get people to apply because of the growth and expansion of high-tech industries that are “swallowing everyone up.”
Despite worries about a worker shortage, Ottawa had an influx of 4,600 job-seekers joining the labour market in September and placed 4,800 people into new jobs. This means the unemployment rate in Ottawa-Hull dropped to 5.9 per cent from six per cent in August.
Michelle Mayer, business development councillor for AIM Personnel Services Inc. on Metcalfe Street, says the job market is “definitely booming” because of the wider diversity of jobs available.
“Now I’m able to send someone to three different interviews, as opposed to just one,” she says. “They can pick and choose which job they want to take themselves, instead of letting the employer make all the decisions.”
Mayer says the number of people being hired from her company has at least doubled from last year, a trend due to the Christmas hiring rush and the growing number of new companies.
Bugler says that from the end of August until the end of October, he’ll be looking to hire a total of 125 people.
“(Hiring) is not that much more difficult than any other year,” Bugler says. “But it’s true that the numbers are decreasing because of more choice and variety for employment