Temporary staffing companies say they may have to lay off their own staff to deal with the economic meltdown in Alberta.
IS2 Staffing Services in Edmonton says it’s starting to see its list of “good quality” candidates grow because of the market downturn, but the number of clients looking for workers is slowly shrinking.
“Business-wise, I think it would be fair to say it’s order-like in both the permanent and temporary staffing (services) in all of our markets,” said Eric Germain, a managing partner with IS2 Staffing Services, which has a number of centres across Canada.
“The motto is to streamline here and that’s what we’re doing. We’re streamlining our own operations just to ride out the storm.”
The economic downturn has created noticeably long lineups of workers at other staffing agencies early in the morning.
Michael Lamontagne resorted to creating a picket sign with a message that he’s looking for work to get noticed by a job seeker as he marched up and down 82 Avenue for weeks.
“I was very frustrated, so I needed to create this sign and hit the street,” said the now-hired driver who is supporting a family in Quebec.
