York Region faces 'cloudy' employment forecast for 2017 first quarter

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 28, 2016
By Lisa Queen

Treasure Mills is one of the six per cent.

While a new report forecasts a “cloudy” employment outlook for York Region employers in early 2017, the Aurora manufacturer of nut- and peanut-free snacks is looking to grow its workforce next year.

“We’re definitely hiring people,” president Robert Johnson said.

However, only a tiny fraction of York employers plan to hire in the first quarter of 2017, according to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey.

Six per cent of employers plan to hire from January to March, while 13 per cent expect cutbacks, Maple Kyriacou, of Manpower’s Markham office, said in a statement.

Another 77 per cent of employers plan to maintain their current staffing levels while the remaining four per cent aren’t sure about the future of their workforce.

“With seasonal variations removed from the data, York Region’s first quarter net employment outlook of -1 per cent is a six-percentage point decrease when compared to the previous quarterly outlook (survey),” Kyriacou said.

“It is also a decrease of nine percentage points from the outlook reported during the same time last year, indicating a weak hiring pace for the upcoming months.”

Nationally, the hiring climate is expected to be steady heading into the first quarter of 2017, led by a strong public administration sector and gains in manufacturing, Darlene Minatel, vice-president of Manpower Canada operations and strategic accounts, said.

“While there are still some areas of concern, oil prices are recovering from their recent lows, the continued weakness in the Canadian dollar is a boon for exports, and Alberta is beginning to rebound after the damage caused by the Fort McMurray wildfires,” she said.

“Job seekers have reason to be optimistic in the quarter to come.”

Treasure Mills, which grew by more than 60 per cent and “hired dramatically” last year, shares that optimism.

“We’re hiring higher skilled people. We’re looking for higher skilled people, for sure, in the sense of more senior management in that regards,” Johnson said.

The company, which now relies on many temporary employees, plans to convert to a more full-time labour force as it grows.

Just how quickly that happens will depend on its success in the U.S. market and automation of the factory, Johnson said.

“We will look to try to hire more permanent positions to support our continuous running and replace some of the temp people we use today with that permanent employment,” he said.
“We’re growing very quickly. We have a lot of growth in our business right now.”

In August, Treasure Mills received a $100,000 grant for food processing machinery at its 30,000-square-foot plant as part of a $2.5 million investment by the by the provincial and federal governments to boost York Region’s food and beverage processing sector.

Making strategic investments in food and beverage processing companies boosts the region’s agri-food sector, Oak Ridges-Markham MPP Helena Jaczek said at the funding announcement.

The agri-food sector provides one in nine jobs in Ontario and generates more than $36 billion a year, she said.