New Zellers locations, the most in-demand jobs and bypassing roaming fees: Must-read business and investing stories

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Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe and Mail’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.

Here’s where Zellers will be making a comeback

Last summer, Hudson’s Bay Co. announced that Zellers is making a comeback with locations within its Bay department stores starting early 2023. The chain will sell product categories including housewares and furniture, toys, pet accessories and clothing, and they will also launch products under a private-label brand. Additionally, Zellers will debut “a new e-commerce site.” This week, the retailer announced where shoppers can expect to find Zellers pop-up stores, including four in British Columbia, three in Alberta, one in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, nine in Ontario, five in Quebec and two in Nova Scotia. There is still no official launch date for the 25 locations across Canada.

The most in-demand jobs for 2023

New year, new career? E-commerce jobs such as growth marketing managers and product operations managers, as well as cannabis dispensary technicians, technical program managers and user experience writers, are projected to be among the highest in demand in Canada, even as a recession looms. Salmaan Farooqui reports that the best job opportunities remain in the tech sector, despite recent high-profile layoffs. Canada’s labour market is still remarkably strong, with near record low unemployment rates and steady hiring. Additionally, employers face a highly competitive labour market, in which employees are prioritizing salaries, benefits and work-life balance through flexible hours.

Canadian companies are bracing for a recession

Publicly-traded Canadian businesses seem to be bracing for a recession. The proportion of them mentioning the R-word in earnings calls is rising at the fastest pace in 15 years, Jason Kirby writes. An analysis of earnings call transcripts points to general pessimism from executives in their conversations with analysts and investors, perhaps reflecting an attempt to manage expectations for the months ahead. Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada released the results of its fourth-quarter business outlook survey earlier this week, which showed its indicator of business sentiment falling to 0.7 from 1.74 in the third quarter.

Canada’s inflation rate is easing, but how does yours stack up?

Canada’s inflation rate fell to 6.3 per cent in December from 6.8 per cent in the previous month, Matt Lundy reports. This was mostly due to a steep drop in gas prices, while grocery inflation remained around 11 per cent. Your personal rate of inflation might be different than the one reported by Statistics Canada each month, especially if you don’t buy everything on the list of goods and services used to calculate the Consumer Price Index – let alone in the same proportions. For example, if you don’t own a vehicle, you weren’t affected in the same way by wild swings in gasoline prices last year. On the other hand, a two-car household that drives frequently saw their costs soar. That’s why The Globe created a personal inflation calculator. We’ve distilled CPI to a handful of key categories. Punch in your monthly expenses, and we’ll calculate the annual change in consumer prices, based on your budget.

Ditch cellular roaming fees the next time you travel

One of the most painful parts of a vacation – other than delayed flights and lost luggage – is coming home and seeing your cell phone bill. International roaming charges for data usage can be steep, depending on your cell phone plan and the country to which you’re travelling. But as Erica Alini writes, roaming fee worries may soon be in the past thanks to embedded SIMs, more commonly referred to as e-SIMs. Some phones currently have a physical SIM and an e-SIM that can be associated with a second phone number and different data provider. Others support two active e-SIMs at the same time. So when you’re travelling, you can assign a plan by a foreign provider to your e-SIM and pay for service like a local.

Hybrid work is creating liability concerns for companies

If an employee is hurt while working from home, is it a workplace injury? And what if a family member overhears sensitive information during a Zoom call? These are some of the liability headaches employers are dealing with as employees continue to do their jobs from their homes. According to Rita Trichur, many chief executives are grumbling that the hybrid office – a mash-up of remote and in-person work that gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic – is making their employees less productive and corroding corporate culture. And while a lot of companies embraced the hybrid model to attract and retain workers, the economy is slowing down and the blurring of employees’ professional and private lives is problematic for some CEOs.

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Sign up for MoneySmart Bootcamp: If you want to improve your financial fitness, The Globe’s MoneySmart Bootcamp newsletter course is for you. This new five-part course written by personal finance reporter Erica Alini will improve your personal finance skills, including budgeting, borrowing and investing. Subscribe to the MoneySmart Bootcamp and you’ll receive an e-mail a week to work a different financial muscle. Lessons will land in your inbox Wednesday afternoons.

Now that you’re all caught up, prepare for the week ahead with the Globe’s investing calendar.