Calgary's Employment Crisis - December 6th 2006

THE BLACK GOLD RUSH

Calgary, and the whole of Alberta are facing a boom on the back of the oil projects up north. People are coming in from all over Canada and from other countries because jobs are easy to find and the money is good. House prices in Calgary have soared, which is good for those who bought a couple of years or more ago, and Alberta’s economy is very healthy. The Alberta boom is almost single handedly responsible for a drop in unemployment in Newfoundland.

This all sounds like very good news, but there are some significant problems associated with this explosive growth. Most pressing is the situation in the service and support industries in Calgary. Most of the newcomers into the city are not surprisingly coming here for the higher paid jobs resulting in a squeeze lower down.

Associated Cabs, recently announced that they currently have over 100 taxis sitting idle because they can’t find anyone to drive them. Taxis in the city are hard to get at the best of times and the situation has recently been made worse by the demise of the bus company that used to run to downtown from the airport (because they couldn’t find any drivers either). The city just announced a plan to recruit 200 firemen, although I don’t know where they think they’ll get them from. There is a shortage of police, teachers and other infrastructure workers. Nearly every retail business in the city is trying to recruit staff, some are even offering golden hellos, a cash bonus if you’ll go to work for them and stay there a while.

The main result of this squeeze has been a significant drop in the quality of service in shops and restaurants. This is either because there are insufficient staff numbers or because the quality of the employees has reduced as the better, more dynamic people quit to go work in better jobs.

Pay in the service sector has lagged behind as the cost of living has soared so there’s little or no incentive for an unemployed young Canadian from one of the other provinces to come to Calgary to bust tables or serve in our shops. Wages will eventually have to climb significantly as the worker shortage intensifies although this will inevitably fuel inflation in the province. For this correspondent, the sooner the sooner it happens, the better!

Comment by Tim G on February 22nd 2007

Many business people today still have a 1970 mentality when it comes to employees. They view employees as somewhat disposable. Unfortunately that trend is all too common in business thinking. As an example: In the year 2011 there will be a huge demographic change from number of working people to pensioners, yet business people are totally unprepared for this coming shakeup in the job market. Many still hold romantic views of employees showing up at there doors begging for jobs. Good luck. Those employees who have good skill sets will demand even higher money than before, forcing many employers to rethink there business plans.

Comment by Shaun on March 12th 2008

t took me 4 years to land a job in Calgary while I lived in Toronto. I appreciate the distance but if the shortage was/is that real, then I would only think that some long distance calls need to be made.

It was nice to see that others consider that "people beg for jobs" is not a reality anymore.

I am a software programmer and would like to return to Calgary. I completed a project in 2007 in Calgary and returned to Ottawa as I disagreed with the politics of the office where I worked. Regardless, I would like to return to Calgary but I will not leave Ottawa on a whim. In Ontario, I have seen the same organizations place the same ad for the same position multiple times yet they continue to search. Therefore, I am hesitant to just relocate at a hefty cost and risk to my finances. I was offered a low-intermediate salary for a senior-level position in Calgary, which I declined.

I consider that organizations are too conservative of their search for skills and may need to work with the potential employees rather than think that we are desperate.