Why some are struggling to find jobs despite an overall strong labour market

The hunt for work remains challenging for some groups in Waterloo Region, but economic experts say overall the labour market is relatively strong.

New World Momentum, a Kitchener employment agency that helps connect employers with candidates seeking work said there’s been a big change in the number of people looking for work recently.

“Over the last couple of years, I have seen the number of people looking for jobs has gone up,” CEO Manu Bahl said.

Staff at New World Momentum said with certain industries, there are more people seeking jobs than there are positions available, like retail or restaurant positions.

That’s not the case for jobs that require more training and experience.

“When it comes to [people in] the highly-skilled jobs like millwright, structural fitter, welders, electricians – things that require a lot of skills... there is a bit of a labour shortage in that area,” Vanessa Gale, the other CEO of New World Momentum, said.

While they are seeing people looking for jobs from all different age ranges, New World Momentum said international students make up the bulk of recent job hunters.

“And whenever there’s a rule change around the number of hours that students can work, we get an extra influx. The office is constantly busy,” Gale said.

Statistics Canada numbers show unemployment rates in Waterloo Region have remained relatively consistent throughout 2023.

In January, the local unemployment rate sat at 6 per cent. It ranged between 5.3 per cent and 6.3 per cent throughout the year, and was 6.1 per cent in November. The December stats have not yet been released.

In the first 11 months of the year in 2022, the local unemployment rate averaged 5.6 per cent. The same time span in 2023 averaged 5.9 per cent.

“It’s up slightly, but really only slightly and those are really solid unemployment rate numbers,” Christine Neill, an associate professor of economics at Wilfrid Laurier University, said.

Those numbers are broad samples and don’t reflect any specific demographics or groups.

Neill said the recent significant increase of international students in Waterloo Region who are searching for their first jobs might take a while to balance out.

“It just takes time and it’s difficult,” Neill said.

“It’s kind of like you’ve got a big queue of people trying to break into the labour market, and even if it’s pretty strong, it’s going to take some time for the queue to subside.”

Neill, who was once an international student herself, said understanding how to find jobs in a new country is a challenge in itself. She added trends tend to balance out in the long run.

“Newcomers create jobs as well as want jobs,” she said.

“The new international students, a lot of them from south Asia, are both wanting employment but also wanting things that create employment for other people. The economy does equilibrate to these sorts of shocks in the longer run, but in the shorter run it does take time.”

Overall, Neill said the labour market remains strong.

“It’s not dire straits at the moment. These are somewhat unusual circumstances. I think and it would be great if we had a little bit of a better handle on what exactly is happening with the international student population,” she said.