How's biz?

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

About a year ago there was a body count thread for layoffs and company changes. Since then it feels as though the business climate in Calgary is improved, but I am curious what the average CPer thinks.

I see a lot of hiring into the traditional Calgary industries and companies, but not sure they are back to previous highs, or even close. I don't see the same prevalence of help wanted signs yet (though I'm told northern Alberta is going to hit a big labour shortage wall soon...maybe that will trickle down here).

Overall, 2011 is looking positive if unspectacular. Any stories to tell from CP businesses?

[Red Slinger]

All of my co-workers who were layed off are working again. For some it took a full year to find employment. My industry is definately seeing a small surge in terms of activity but I would qualify it as being quite deliberate at this point. It'll be at least another 10 years before people forget about what got us in this mess and piss away their money like their was no end in sight (where are the bumper stickers when you need them?). For now, most companies seem to be cautious in their approach.

[FLAMESRULE]

My wife is still unemployed. She's a junior geo with 3 years experience. She got let go about 18months ago.

I've never been busier. Heavy oil company I work with is on the cusp of being a major producer. We laid off half the staff in April 2009. We havent hired anybody back, but I think we're going to need too fairly soon. The area I look after near Slave Lake apparently is going off the hook. We cant find pickers, trucks, or pumpers. Couple guys have said that the ones left are all going up to Ft. Mac. The rest of them have changed industries or gone back home (Nfld.).

[worth]

Oil and Gas manufacturing. We've been hiring since August/September. Huge turnaround in the domestic sector since September. The backlog I have at the moment (which includes international sales) will take me through to March, The pending domestic sales for next year is massive.

[Kybosh]

I'm in the middle of a career change right now. I'm coming from pharmaceutical R&D and, for a variety of reasons, am transitioning into the energy sector. I've noticed a steady increase in company interest but it is extremely slow going. In addition to applying for many different job postings, I'm spending a lot of time networking. I would say networking is more important now than the previous ten years.

[Starfishy]

Certainly in Northern Alberta and BC the jobs are available in the oil and gas industry. As for business in Calgary, most of the service side of the industry is claiming to be very busy. What this means is that the crews they have are very busy, but lots of the iron they have is still sitting idle. Many companies are worried about hiring back more crews to run more rigs/equipment while things are busy knowing full well they will be laying guys off again in the spring.

[WilsonFourTwo]

My phone has been dead for about 2 years, but over the past 4 or 5 months I've noticed a real uptick in ex-colleagues calling to "discuss an opportunity you'd be great for".

Too me, if my limited network (I'm an a-hole....) is coming up with (decent) unsolicited job opportunities, the local market must be getting a whole lot better. For clarification, these are primarily "Tech" jobs.

[calumniate]

I'm in education, a notably stable industry which doesn't pay as well as you private guys However we've been hammered recently. The government is broke and there have been funding cuts. Seems like it will be forever before the situtaion brightens. I'm still employed but there have been layoffs to be sure.

[burn_this_city]

I work for an oil company in an EPC (engineering) house. We have been ramping up our project so we're bringing in a lot of new people. I don't believe the industry has come close to recovering, still a lot of projects sitting on the back burner.

[CaptainCrunch]

I essentially doubled my numbers from last year, and I had a strong year the year before this.

So the poor economy didn't have an effect.

[Red Slinger]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

I work for an oil company in an EPC (engineering) house. We have been ramping up our project so we're bringing in a lot of new people. I don't believe the industry has come close to recovering, still a lot of projects sitting on the back burner.

I happen to work for an EPC and the number of RFQ's we've seen this year (especially this quarter) have increased quite a bit. But you're right, the industry isn't near a full recovery. If a full recovery means the craziness of 2005-8 than I'm okay with not having a full recovery.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

I happen to work for an EPC and the number of RFQ's we've seen this year (especially this quarter) have increased quite a bit. But you're right, the industry isn't near a full recovery. If a full recovery means the craziness of 2005-8 than I'm okay with not having a full recovery.

Agreed. The less lukewarm bodies returning, the better.

[yads]

I'm in IT consulting, while we've seen downward pressure on rates, I haven't seen too many job losses.

[alltherage]

In my field I still get job offers from people trying to take me away from what I already do. I'm in marketing and I have some design skills.

For whatever reason I haven't really felt the effects of the recession. In fact... I got my house less expensive than it would have been a year or two ago.

[J pold]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I essentially doubled my numbers from last year, and I had a strong year the year before this.

So the poor economy didn't have an effect.

So, you work for McDonald's?

[TurnedTheCorner]

My department just trimmed it's head count by about 15%. This was after being in a holding pattern for most of the downturn. I think we've seen the last of those kind of job decisions for a while now. Back to the usual personnel churn.

Business has been stable to slow for me for about the last 10 months. Add in some technology and business process changes, and I'm able to get much more down with less time and effort invested than I once was. Of course, this is leading to new discoveries and challenges for improvement.

[Table 5]

I don't know how, or why, but I've never been busier than in 2010....which is in sharp contrast to a lot of people I know in my industry. I'm working as much as I can, since I have no idea when things will go south....but if 2011 is 3/4ths as good as this year was, I'll be a happy camper.

[Reaper]

I work for an EPC. Things have been crazy the last few months with tonnes of new hires and lots of projects. I've had a couple of crazy deadlines with some steady work in my client area over the winter.

Although there are fewer cadtards working for us right now they still exist. I've been mentally targeting them for if/when I am shown the door so that I know who to aim for once I'm up in the clocktower.

[macker]

I have found this year 20-30% better vs last year. From a broader perspective Canada and the S&P TSX Composite Index reflect relative strength and stability vs others. When put up against every other major world index only the FTSE and Shanghai were better then our 30.7% return at 35% and 79.8% respectively for 2009. This year we are second to the Germans as the Dax is up 10.8% year to date and we are right around 7.5%. I think this reflects what is happening on street level also but we still have an all eggs in one basket economy as 22.9% of our market is Materials and 25.4% Energy so any corrections will be volatile and will happen quick and could cause a lot of pain. Economic growth slowed substantially in Q2 so much so that the Bank of Canada hit the pause button with short rates at 1%...Biz is cautious at this moment in time....

[Bill Bumface]

I'm in IT and the outsourcing trend going around the major energy companies is putting fairly massive downward pressure on rates.

No big deal in the long term. In 2 to 3 years you know they'll all be scrambling to get out of whatever nonsensical deals they've signed. It amazes me how us peons can always see that one coming but the big cheeses are so eager to go down this road over and over.