2016 Retrospective: the top ten news of the labour market
- Banks – Major Canadian banks (CIBC, BMO, National Bank, Laurentian, Desjardins, etc.) all justified their cuts in personnel with their need to adapt to customers shifting towards digital platforms.
- Media – The media funding model is in crisis mode. Thus, media groups (TC Media, Rogers Media, etc.) have multiplied layoffs while seeking new revenues from the Web.
- Energy – Although an initial drop in prices occurred in 2015, the oil crisis continued to affect Albertan oil companies throughout 2016, resulting in slower production and layoffs.
- Amazon Canada – Since e-commerce has the wind in its sails, Amazon has investing outside the United States and created jobs right here in Canada: the opening of a distribution centre in Brampton, Ontario, has created 700 new jobs.
- Technology Investments – As a sign that the IT sector is doing well, Microsoft has opened cloud computing centres in Toronto and Quebec, and Google announced that it will invest $4.5 million in artificial intelligence in Montreal.
- Job Search – The consolidation of job search sites continued in 2016. Recruit Holdings Group, which already owns Indeed, also bought Simply Hired in July. The following month, Randstad bought out Monster.
- Networking – LinkedIn was bought by Microsoft for US $26 billion.
- The palm of employment in Olymel – The time for acrimonious negotiations has come to an end. Olymel is in investment and hiring mode: it has created 350 new jobs in Mauricie, 200 in Lanaudière and another 160 in Vallée-Jonction. And this is just the beginning: investments of $500 million are expected in 2017.
- Trump’s Election – Euphoria for some, nightmare and disgust for others, the election of Donald Trump took everyone by surprise. His “inflationary” economic policies are now likely to cause a shock wave for Canada and Quebec.
- A magnetic end of the year! Let us take a moment to welcome an improvement in the Quebec job market. Theprovince recorded its lowest monthly rate of unemployment in the last 40 years, with 6.2% for the month of November.