You'll receive our next newsletter on July 6, 2017
What a difference a year makes: Hamilton's economy is a good news story!
When we compare the state of Hamilton's labour market in August 2016 to the present day we can see a decrease in our unemployment rate, and an upswing in the number of people employed, and in the labour participation rate.
This positive news will be of particular interest to students and job seekers who are interested in preparing themselves to take advantage of the new opportunities that are increasingly available in Hamilton.
During the past year the industries that have seen the largest growth in employment are: Healthcare and social assistance by 14,500 people (28%); Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing by 7,300 (32%); and, Manufacturing by 7,300 people (18%).
As we drill down into the statistics here is what have we learned:
⦁ Since August 2016, Hamilton's unemployment rate has declined from 6.3% to 5.2% as of May 2017. Featuring a 1.1 % point decline this is the lowest the unemployment rate has been since September 2015.
⦁ Starting in August 2016, 8 out of the last 10 months have seen an increase in number of people in employed. Over this time there has been an increase of 32,900 people employed.
⦁ The labour force participation rate (the number of people working or looking for work) has reversed its downward trend and increased from 62.4% to 66.4%. This is the highest the labour force participation rate has been since March of 2012.
Watch this space for more positive news about Hamilton's growing labour market!
How to nurture the people in your career network
People tend to make two common mistakes with their network. The first is what I tend to do with my houseplants: too much watering!
Surely, they must need a drink today, I tell myself as I slowly drown them. In terms of networking, that would be like finding a great contact at an organization where you'd like to work and then initiating contact too frequently and without giving much thought to building the relationship.
The other issue people often experience with networking is neglect. If I tend to overwater my inside plants, I seem to underwater the ones outside.
Too little attention to your network can be just as negative as too much. You shouldn't network only when you need something, like a job.
Entrepreneurship will become a must-have career skill for navigating technological change and an uncertain future
It is estimated that some 65% of children entering primary schools today will likely work in roles that don't currently exist. To deal with this uncertainty,
increased emphasis on innovation entrepreneurship is needed: the abilities to match new ideas or technology to market and societal needs, and
sustainably create and capture value from innovation.
When we compare the state of Hamilton's labour market in August 2016 to the present day we can see a decrease in our unemployment rate,