Our systems have seen and tagged millions of new jobs in the last month alone. Having access to the text and features of those positions gives us a unique eye into a large part of the labour market in Canada.



So, we asked ourselves: What do jobseekers look for in a city? We have lots of worries in our lives, and almost everyone in the country will compete in the labour market at some point. So we found the cities where the balance is tilted slightly towards the average Canadian, by looking at how many unemployed there were chasing the jobs available in a city.



So, what did we discover?

The best 5 metro areas in the country are all in Alberta

Six of the worst ten? Ontario .

In Calgary, employers paid their new hires more money than anywhere else.

If you work in Nova Scotia’s large cities, like Halifax or Cape Breton, you’re also looking at the lowest paying jobs.

Easiest cities for jobseekers

There are some places in Canada where for every unemployed person, there is a job waiting. In others, there are thirty for each position. Let’s look at where you can be fired and just walk off to your new job:

Rank Region Municipality Adzuna Average Salary UI beneficiaries per job 1 Alberta Grande Prairie $56,265 1.38 2 Alberta Red Deer $56,040 1.77 3 Alberta Edmonton $56,494 2.15 4 Alberta Calgary $62,081 2.31 5 Alberta Lethbridge $52,758 2.91

To better see this data, we made a map that shows the fifty cities we studied all across the country. It certainly proves the point that the cities of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, are all some of the best places for workers in Canada.

What are the best paid job sectors?

Rank Sector Listings Salary % of total 1 Energy, Oil & Gas Jobs 881 CAD 90,458.00 0.96% 2 IT Jobs 7072 CAD 82,766.00 7.71% 3 HR & Recruitment Jobs 1586 CAD 67,068.00 1.73% 4 Engineering Jobs 5983 CAD 64,184.00 6.52% 5 Scientific & QA Jobs 2277 CAD 59,940.00 2.48%



By far the highest salaries were paid in Energy, Oil & Gas. HR and Recruitment sneaks in third place, quite a bit more than the engineers. The answer is clear, either work with technology, engineering and breaking new barriers, or make sure you control salaries!

It seems that the computer has taken over the Canadian economy, almost 8% of the jobs available can be tagged IT. That is, making computers do new things, or taking care of them! However, it wasn’t the largest sector in our records. Canadian businesses are currently looking for more sales, accounting and construction workers.

Largest sectors

Rank Sector Listings Salary % of total 1 Sales Jobs 8198 CAD 47,710.00 8.94% 2 Accounting & Finance Jobs 7628 CAD 50,169.00 8.32% 3 Trade & Construction Jobs 7603 CAD 50,949.00 8.29% 4 IT Jobs 7072 CAD 82,766.00 7.71% 5 Consultancy Jobs 6895 CAD 58,015.00 7.52%

Employment beneficiary count data is based on the September to November 2013 numbers released on January 23rd 2013 by StatCan. The city areas referred to in this study are StatCan’s Census Metropolitan Areas. The full Employment Insurance beneficiary count statistics are available for download here: http://goo.gl/m96QRC

If you liked what you read above, subscribe and start your job search with Adzuna.ca! We’ll update you when we release our regional series with even more insights into the economy!

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