By Daniel Smith
Even with Ottawa’s unemployment rate at an all-time low, Centretown businesses are not having any trouble finding summer help, according to a local youth employment office.
A recent Statistics Canada report showed that in February the city’s jobless rate had dropped to just 4.7 per cent, from 6.1 per cent the year before. Usually such a low rate of unemployment would make it harder for employers to find good workers because the competition is so stiff, says Frances Woolley, a professor of Economics at Carleton University.
But according to Steven Boucher, job counsellor and developer for the Centretown– East branch of the provincial Youth Employment Services office, there always seem to be businesses in town looking for summer workers and students looking to fill those position.
“There are so many organizations and businesses here that hire students during their time off in the summer,” he says. “The interest level pretty much stays the same most years, or even goes up a little each year.”
The employment agency runsannual information sessions three times a week starting in April and either places students in fitting jobs, or provides them with the tools to find a job on their own. Either way, says Boucher, their success rate has always been about 80 per cent. While this year’s meetings have just begun, he doesn’t expect results to be any different.
Fatima Araji, manager of Bank Street breakfast spot Eggspectations, says that taking on summer students just makes sense for businesses like hers because students can only work fulltime for four months — he same four months that are usually her busiest.
“Our busy season is starting right now, pretty much. People just want to go out and explore the streets more in the nice weather and plus there will be more tourists coming into town.”
Some local businesses like Bank Street coffee shop Bridgehead don’t necessarily take on additional student staff, but deal with the extra summer business another way.
“We actually just hire people year round,” says Bridgehead manager Trish Wallace. “We have four students on staff and they live in town so they can work during the winter, and in the summer they get more hours.” But some businesses that won’t be hiring extra help this summer. The assistant store manager at Wallack’s Art and Drafting Supplies, Mike Moffatt, says that for the same reason the summer is so busy for most businesses, the first half of the year is actually their slowest time.
“With the nice weather, people are outside doing outdoor activities, they are not inside working on their art,” he says.
Martin Butler, a University of Ottawa student who is currently looking for work, agreesthat there is no shortage of summer jobs available this year.
“There are lots of ads up, and there seem to be lots of opportunities out there,” he says, “I just started looking and I’ve already got several interviews lined up. I won’t have any trouble getting work this summer.”