Windsor One Of The Worst Cities For Job-seekers: Study

26 Jun 2013

If you’re a Canadian on the hunt for a job, look west.

According to a study conducted by job search website Adzuna, the best cities to find employment are all in Western Canada, while the toughest job markets can all be found east of Thunder Bay.

The study compared the number of jobs listed in a given city with unemployment numbers from Statistics Canada. In Windsor, for example, there were 26.8 job seekers for every vacancy.

Although bad enough to rank inside the top five worst cities for job-seekers, the outlook in Windsor was still rosier than other cities in Ontario. St. Catharines-Niagara was at the very bottom of the list, with 99.9 unemployed people for every vacancy.

“People in these areas are having trouble finding a job because their economies are particularly focused around one or two big industries,” said Adzuna spokesperson James Maskell. “When those industries are really hit, there’s not much demand for other skills.”

In contrast to former rustbelt cities like Windsor, Oshawa and St. Catharines, western municipalities are havens for the unemployed.

In Saskatoon, the average job-seeker will be competing against a mere 4.4 people for a position. Things were nearly as good in Nanaimo, Kamloops and Winnipeg, where there were less than six job-seekers per vacancy.

“The outlook is generally better in cities with more diverse economies,” said Maskell.

The website, which aggregates online job postings from 40 different sites, also looked at which sectors are hiring and what skills are in demand. On Adzuna, the largest number of vacancies were found in  sales, construction, hospitality, information technology, and finance.

For those job hunters who believe it’s more about who you know than what you know, Adzuna allows users to see if any of their LinkedIn contacts work at companies that are hiring.

“At a time when there is tough competition for every job, there’s a high chance that your CV won’t even be looked at by a recruiter. Making use of your social connections gives a huge boost over the first hurdle,” Maskell said.

Best cities to find a job

Source: http://metronews.ca/news/windsor/718823/windsor-one-of-the-worst-cities-for-job-seekers-study/