Labour Market Monitor - Halifax
May 2011
This is an overview of the Halifax Region which includes all of Halifax County. It consists of dense urban areas, as well as less populated communities. The Halifax County line starts along the coast just west of Hubbards and runs along the coast including Dartmouth, Lawrencetown, Tangier, Sheet Harbour, and Moser River. Communities along the top of the border include Enfield, Milford, Upper Musqoudoboit, and Dean.
The Labour Market Monitor is a monthly report focusing on Labour Market Information.
Labour Force Trends
Employment in Halifax continued to remain weak on a year over year basis, with full time employment in May 2011 being 5,000 below that for May 2010. Part time employment is actually up on a year over year basis, but not enough to offset the loss in full time work. With a slight drop in the labour force and decreasing employment, the level of unemployment rose in Halifax and the unemployment rate increased from 5.9 percent in May 2010 to 6.4 percent in May 2011.
For more information, please visit the Statistics Canada website at: www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/lfss05b-eng.htm
| Halifax | May | |
|---|---|---|
| Region: 250 | 2010 | 2011 |
| Labour Force (000) | 237.5 | 237.0 |
| Employed (000) | 223.5 | 221.8 |
| Full Time | 183.7 | 178.7 |
| Part Time | 39.8 | 43.2 |
| Unemployed (000) | 14.0 | 15.2 |
| Participation Rate (%) | 71.3 | 70.1 |
| Unemployment Rate (%) | 5.9 | 6.4 |
| Data is 3 month moving average from the Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada | ||
Labour Market News by Industry
Construction
The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Co. will move from downtown Halifax into the first of several buildings being constructed by J.W. Lindsay Enterprises Ltd. on a business campus at the corner of Burnside Drive and Wright Avenue in Dartmouth. The building is expected to be completed in September, 2011. The developer of the project, the Hardman Group, wants to construct a building at the location each year for the next five years. Retail components and green space will be added to the completed project. (Chronicle-Herald, May 4)
Upgrades will begin on the Eastern Passage waste water treatment plant in the summer of 2011, and will take two years to complete. Maple Reinders, which has offices from Ontario to British Columbia, and Maxim Constructors of Alberta have been awarded the contract to carry out the project. (Chronicle-Herald, May 13)
Brycon Construction is expected to soon start building 900 metres of road and 10 additional serviced lots on land between Wilkinson Avenue and Highway 118 in Burnside. Halifax city staffers have recommended the project, as demand for land in Burnside remains steady. (Chronicle-Herald, May 21)
Manga Developers of Mississauga,Ontario will construct Marriot Courtyard, a 120-room hotel with a 5,000-square-foot conference room, near the airport. Construction is scheduled to begin in September, 2011. Manga also owns two other hotels near the airport, the Holiday Inn and Hilton Garden Inn. Meanwhile, Le Groupe Germain of Quebec City is negotiating to build a hotel at the airport as well. (Chronicle-Herald, May 28)
Extensive renovations will take place on the new Target stores in the Bedford Place Mall and Mic Mac Mall before they are taken over from Zellers in early 2013. (Nova Scotia Business Journal, May 26)
Information and Culture
The movie Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt, starring Tom Selleck, is currently being shot in venues around Halifax and the South Shore. It is the eighth entry in the CBS series, which began shooting in Nova Scotia in 2004. Available talent and financial incentives are cited as reasons which make Nova Scotia an attractive location for filming. (Chronicle-Herald, May 28)
Finance and Insurance
TD Insurance Meloche Monnex Inc. plans to add 140 full-time jobs over six years to its existing staff of 165 on Bayers Road in Halifax, with the help of a provincial government payroll rebate. According to the company, most of the work in the area relates to automobile and home insurance, and University graduates would be paid about $40,000 annually to start. (Chronicle-Herald, May 5)
Professional and Scientific
Atlantic Systems Eduplus, a Dartmouth company which uses 3-D modeling technology to train military technicians, has increased its workforce from about 30 to 106 employees in the past 16 months. Several trends in the military, including a high level of attrition, the outsourcing of training, and the acquisition of new fleets, are expected to benefit the company. Because it develops interactive technology, the firm also stands to benefit from the provincial tax credit system which has helped the film and gaming industry. (Chronicle-Herald, May 3)
General Dynamics Canada has expanded its Dartmouth software centre by establishing a unit of 13 engineers to develop naval sonar for underwater defence. The company originally opened the centre in 2008, as part of a contract to install systems on Canada's new military helicopters. The workers at the software centre now include hardware and software engineers and experts in underwater acoustics and naval sonar operations. It will grow from 38 to between 90 and 110 employees over the next year or so as work on the helicopters progresses. (Chronicle-Herald, May 17)
Revolve, a Bedford advertising agency, has recently added 11 employees, including five in its digital department. (Chronicle-Herald, May 19)
Trade
Target Corp. announced which of the first Zellers stores in Canada it will take over, and they will include those in Mic Mac Mall and Bedford Place Mall. The stores will complete the change in early 2013. A second set of store changes will be announced in September, 2011. Target announced in January it will eventually take over the leases of as many as 220 Zellers stores in Canada. (Nova Scotia Business Journal, May 26)
Four Blockbuster video rental stores in the Halifax area will close in May, 2011. Stores on Quinpool and Herring Cove roads and Queen Street in Halifax as well as on Wyse Road in Dartmouth will close, while one store in Halifax and two in Dartmouth will remain open. Since Blockbuster was placed into receivership earlier in May, 400 stores across Canada have been in jeopardy. It is speculated that online movies and the higher cost of renting are among the reasons. (CBC News, May 24)
Burnside Pharmacy, located at 121 Ilsley Avenue, has closed its doors. The business opened in July 2007 as a Pharmasave location, but had become privately owned. Lack of business was cited as the reason for the closure. (Burnside News, May 4)
Sephora and Hollister Co., a pair of high end retailers, will open in the Halifax Shopping Centre in mid-August, 2011. Cosmetics chain Sephora is a French company with 25 stores in Canada. American youth clothing retailer Hollister Co. has nine stores in Canada and none east of Ontario. (Chronicle-Herald, May 5)
Economic Conditions
The province of Nova Scotia announced that minimum wage will rise from $9.65 to $10 an hour in October, 2011. (Chronicle-Herald, May 11)
Note: In preparing this Labour Market Monitor, Service Canada has taken care to provide clients with labour market information from reliable sources that is timely and accurate at the time of publication. Since labour market conditions are dynamic, some of the information presented here may have changed since this document was published. Readers are encouraged to also refer to other sources for additional information on the local economy and labour market. Information contained in this document does not necessarily reflect official policies of Service Canada.For more information please contact your local Labour Market Information Analysts for Halifax:
neill.evans@servicecanada.gc.ca
or
glenn.yetman@servicecanada.gc.ca
or visit our website at: www.labourmarketinformation.ca