Prince Edward Island launches a manpower development fund
What is the purpose of the fund recently launched by the government of Prince Edward Island? Supporting employee skills development in the Island’s private sector. According to the Minister for Innovation and Advanced Learning, Allen Roach, qualified manpower must be able to allow local businesses to improve their operational capacities, create employment opportunities and accelerate the Province’s economic growth.
The fund, which has three components (learning, innovation and exposure of the workforce), includes among other things: supporting businesses that request it with their skills assessment projects, financing training programs and developing employee continuing education and professional experience.
Confidence declining among Canadian business leaders
Against a backdrop of international economic uncertainty and pending implementation of fiscal consolidation measures in the United States, Canadian business leaders are less and less optimistic. This decline is noted by a recent survey undertaken by Deloitte. Net optimism (that is, the difference between respondents who expressed growing optimism and those reporting declining optimism) has dropped from +47% in the 3rd quarter of 2012 to -6% in the 4th quarter. As a result, companies are revising their expectations downwards in terms of growth, sales development, research and development, marketing and advertising expenses and recruitment opportunities. In short, they are concerns that are motivating them to protect their liquidity and slow their investments and development of their activities…
Canadian employees are planning to work longer
According to a survey by TD Bank Financial Group, 16% of Canadian employees intend to continue working after reaching the age of 70, while among current retirees only 3% stayed on the job after reaching 70. In addition, 15% of employees plan to start putting money aside for their retirement five years before leaving the workforce. Meanwhile, 69% of retirees say they should have started saving at least 25 years before their retirement! They advise younger ones to start as soon as possible, including setting up a budget that they respect and paying all their debts off before retiring.
Debt repayment, a priority
CIBC has just published the results of a survey on financial priorities conducted among over 2,000 Canadians. The conclusions: this year, repayment of debts remains the number 1 priority for 17% of respondents, as in 2012. This good resolution is followed by savings (10%), better management of daily expenses (8%) and retirement plans (7%). The priorities vary depending on the age group. For example, among the 18-24 year olds interviewed, none are preoccupied with retirement. Among the 35-44 year olds, repayment of debts is the priority for 28% of cases. The geographic zone also seems to have an influence: in Quebec, management of daily expenses is a concern for only 5% of the population, compared to 10% in Saskatchewan.
Employment on track
39,800 jobs were created between November and December 2012 in Canada according to Statistics Canada, which resulted in a slight decrease in unemployment while experts had expected to see an increase. In fact it stabilised at 7.1% in December 2012, compared to 7.2% in November 2012. This improvement might seem minimal, but considering that a rise in unemployment was expected and that only 5,000 jobs were planned to be created, it was a major step forward. Although jobs have not yet returned to their 2006-2007 levels, the 312,000 positions created last year portend a 2013 that may be less negative than feared by economists.