Alberta government to provide update on jobs plan at Edmonton tech venture
原始发布日期： 2016-04-11 发布者：李方字变大 字变小
Listen EDMONTON – The provincial government is set to provide an update Monday morning on its jobs plan. Economic Development and Trade Minister, Deron Bilous, will share the news at TEC Edmonton, a not-for-profit joint venture between the University of Alberta and the City of Edmonton’s Edmonton Economic Development Corporation. TEC Edmonton helps inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors access facilities, management and financing expertise from both public and private sources, in order to help build their technology ventures. Hard hit by plunging oil prices, Alberta’s unemployment rate has been on the rise for months. March was the anomaly: the country’s labour market received a surge in full-time and private-sector work last month that helped to drive down the national unemployment rate to 7.1 per cent. According to Statistics Canada, Alberta added 19,000 jobs in March; 14,000 of them were full-time positions. The provincial unemployment rate fell to 7.1 per cent in March compared to 7.9 per cent in February, thanks to more retail and wholesale trade positions. The Edmonton-area picked up 3,500 new jobs last month, but the city’s Chief Economist said that growth isn’t expected to continue through 2016. “The employment gains that we saw at the provincial level are very unlikely to be repeated in the months to come,” said Rose. “Unfortunately, as we move into the second and third quarter, you’ll see job growth in the Edmonton region slow considerably and we may see some months with some job losses.” WATCH: The numbers aren’t what Albertans were expecting… in a good way. But, as Sarah Kraus explains, it doesn’t necessarily mean things are turning around just yet. The province has been taking steps to help boost job creation in Alberta. In February Minister Bilous announced a royalty credit program aimed to boost the province’s petrochemical sector and attract up to $5 billion in investment. WATCH: The province has unveiled a new program it hopes will create thousands of jobs in the petro-chemical industry. Fletcher Kent explains. Last month Premier Rachel Notley suggested that a tax break for small business owners may be coming in the budget, which will be released on Thursday, April 14. TEC Edmonton, short for Technology, Entrepreneur & Company Development, claims its 100-plus clients have grown an average of 25 per cent per year in revenues and employment, compared to a national growth rate of 10 per cent for early-stage Canadian companies. It also says companies using TEC services have a higher one-year survival rate. WATCH: The 13th annual TEC Venture Prize Awards event celebrating entrepreneurship In Alberta gets underway later this month. The CEO of TEC Edmonton Chris Lumb and the founder of Omx Personal Health Analytics Michael Wilson joined the Morning News to talk about Alberta’s growing tech sector. More to come… 2016 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc. By Karen Bartko Online Journalist Global News |