No surprise here - fewer firms expect to hire in '09

You might have a harder time finding work in 2009, according to a new survey of Canadian hiring intentions released Tuesday.

On the other hand, the CareerBuilder.ca survey suggests that if you do have a job next year, you have a better than three-out-of-four chance of getting a raise.

Although few Canadian companies say they expect to add to their workforce in 2009, 77 per cent said they figured to increase the pay for existing workers within the next 12 months.

Careerbuilder, a search consultancy, said that only 18 per cent of the 286 hiring professionals surveyed were looking to increase their payrolls in 2009 while 16 per cent wanted to pare back their workforces.

In last year's results, 46 per cent of firms thought they would be increasing their staffs in 2008.

Of course, the global economy, already running in slowdown mode as the year began, hit the credit crunch wall in September. As a result, the survey, taken between Nov.12 and Dec. 1, caught company executives in a sombre mood.

"After steady growth for the first 10 months, the weakened U.S. and global economies appear to be having a negative effect on Canadian job growth in the final months of 2008," said Remy Piazza, managing director of CareerBuilder Canada.

"Looking ahead to 2009, current recruitment trends are expected to continue at a slower pace, as companies wait to see what happens with the global economy," he said.

More than half of the group surveyed, 51 per cent, did not foresee any change to their company headcounts in 2009.

Rising pay — except for new hires

What has held up between the survey forecast for 2008 and the one for 2009 was the percentage of companies saying they would hike pay for their employees.

The dip in this indicator was only marginal, reaching 77 per cent for 2009 compared with 84 per cent in the survey of 2008.

Of this group, 47 per cent expected to boost paycheques by three per cent, while 13 per cent anticipated raising pay by a relatively hefty five per cent or more in 2009.

Fewer companies, however, expected to raise salaries for new hires, 41 per cent compared with 65 per cent in last year's study.

The last result might not come as a surprise, as Canada's unemployment rate is expected to average 7.3 per cent for 2009 versus 6.1 per cent for 2008, according to RBC Economics.

Higher unemployment means more potential workers chasing each new job and less need to use higher salaries to attract employees.

As well, companies tend to reward existing employees and ask them work harder before taking on new labour.