The Walkerton-based four County Labour Market Planning Board is starting to see more concrete results in its ongoing monthly labour market survey of Huron, Perth, Bruce and Grey Counties.
Executive-Director Gemma Mendez-Smith tells Bayshore Broadcasting News the series of monthly surveys is attracting more responses since the end of the summer.
An average of 92 employers across all economic sectors responded to the monthly polls for September and October.
Mendez-Smith believes employers are buying into the importance of the data the Board is collecting each month and that more will be encouraged to participate by the time the year-long project ends in March.
Much of the purpose of the survey is to help chart the strongest economic growth areas and to develop training programs for those industries and businesses.
Mendez-Smith says getting the word out will be crucial to the success of the survey and the residents who will ultimately be trained in growth industries.
She’s convinced as the word continues to circulate among employers that more of them will be interested in taking part in the surveys.
Mendez-Smith points out that so far the results are positive especially for the manufacturing sector where new hires are outnumbering layoffs.
Mendez-Smith says it may be too early to breathe a sigh of relief yet but that it looks like manufacturing may be starting to stage a comeback after many employers laid off workers due to the recession.
She says manufacturers are being creative in their approach to doing business and are looking for workers with some form of specialized training.
Last week, Scotia predicted economic growth in Ontario would be about two per-cent next year because of the slow comeback in the manufacturing sector.
