Alberta to launch a new strategic plan to curb the current woes of the Construction Industry

New strategy planned to assist the ailing contruction industry in Alberta. Numerous options are bing looked at including:

1) Encouraging Women and Aboriginals into the trades, through mentorship opportunities since the current numbers peg males as being over 85% of the currents workers in this area.

2) Battling Ottawa to revise EI rules so that individuals being laided off in High Unemployment areas could easily move to Alberta without red tape issues.

Article also has some great info and stats on the current market in Alberta.

Alberta the Second, Saskatchewans Boom Offically Arrives

Good article mimicking the Alberta boom in Saskatchewan. Worrisome if this trend continues though, we are already tight for workers without competing with Saskatchewan.

Alberta Tuitions Jump Nearly Double the Canadian Average

Alberta tuition jumps show they are considerably more then the rest of the country:

1) Alberta average tuition = $4900 ($400 more then anywhere else in the country)

2) Alberta tuition jump from last year = 4.9% (in comparision to the national average of 2.8%)

Alberta Advantage? Not in post secondary!

Christmas Nightmare ... for employers staffing their stores

Good article discussing Alberta's current job boom and worker shortage and its potential affect on the Christmas Retail Rush.

(Near) Country Wide Has Loonie Soaring and Job Rate Falling

Amazing article that really outlines the Dollar and new job growth and how they have been effected over the past year. Found it encouraging that the total number of new jobs in Canada this year has been well over a quarter million:

"The new jobs helped to boost the total number of positions created in the country this year to 283,000, representing an increase of 1.7 per cent for the period."

NAIT opens massive Trades training expansion

Yet another indicator that the trades are booming:

"The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, which trains half of Alberta's apprentices and 20 per cent of those in all of Canada, threw open the doors on state-of-the art training facilities Tuesday that will see capacity for instrumentation apprentices grow by more than 60 per cent and by 25 per cent for millwright apprentices.

The $39.6-million NAIT Spartan Centre for Instrumentation Technology and Petro-Canada Centre for Millwright Technology officially opened with a ceremony featuring the Loyal Edmonton Regiment Blacklight Drum Line."

Pretty mind boggling to think of the measures the province and post-secondary schools are going to in an attempt to solve teh Alberta Labour crisis, specifically in the trades.

Univeristy grad goes on cross country adventure working a different job every week for a full year

Interesting article covering a university graduate who secured sponsors so that he could travel across the country working a different job every week for a year. Interesting concept which highlights how grads tend to struggle identifying a specific career path of choice after finishing school.

Red Deer holds Alberta's lowest unemployment rate at 2.9%

CBC news recently reported that the province gained 3000+ workers from July to August but Red Deer still held the lowest unemployment rate in province at 2.9%.

Union Boss calls out Big Oil for scare mongering

Good article basically calling out the Oil & Gas Sector following their comments that increased royalties could cripple job growth and possibly result in layoffs:

"Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said he's concerned that in the runup to the next provincial election, union members will get a strong message from their employers that they should support anyone who opposes new, stronger regulation of the province's energy royalty regime.

"We want to be sure that no one is taken in by this 'sky is falling' message that the industry is putting out - that if the recommendations are implemented, jobs will be lost," said McGowan. "We don't buy it. These are just scare tactics aimed at helping the energy industry keep an unreasonably large piece of the pie." "

Commentary on the Canadian Dollars 30 year high, inflation and potentially devastating effect on the majority of Canada

Great article outlining the dangers of our strong dollar, high interest rates and stabilized/lowered inflation rates. The authors concern is that this combination can spell disaster for our manufacturing and other non-energy related jobs. Good food for thought.

Big Oil immediatley impacted by rumors of increased royalties

Numerous producers say 3% - 12% decreases in their stock prices following a report that the Government of Alberta needs to drastically increase its out dated energy royalty figures.

Stelmach Claims He Won't be Intimidated By Big Business After Oil Royalties Review Report Suggests Increase Needed Immediately

After a bombshell report was released yesterday claiming that the Alberta government NEEDS TO INCREASE ROYALTIES IMMEDIATELY, tension has never been higher between the Oil & Gas Producers and the Government.

After a day of grumblings and threats by the Oil & Gas Producers, the Premier has publicly stated today that he will not be intimidated and will do the right thing in the face of pressure from the private sector.

It is yet to be announced what the Government plans to do with these royalty recommendations and what the eventual effects might be on the current Alberta Boom.

Canada - record low unemployment, 350,000 workers needed in British Columbia

Amazing article that has just way to many numbers, stats and insights to list here. Please take a read by clicking on the Title above.

Alberta has highest job growth, lowest unemployment in Canada

Brief article but has some great stats:

Alberta ahs only 10% of Canada's populaiton but produced 27% of all new jobs!

Great news for us but wages have to start scaling up or else people will be stuck in rental properties for ever.

Uneven boom sours life for new arrivals and debt-laden young

Good commentary on the wholistic impact of high rents and a booming job market. Also a good commentary on how people still view "advanced education" as the meal ticket to good pay and good jobs. I won't comment on my opinion but I will say that I know a ton of BA students who complain continually that they have been ripped off because they took a degree and are only making $32K a year. Just makes me shake my head.

Employers scrambling to fill jobs, start to change hiring and wage standards

This article shows how desperate some employers are. What is great is that the employer highlighted has implemented a great solution to his seasonal labour issue. It is a solution I have never heard of where he partners with the Mexican Government to gain seasonal workers on 8 month visas.

Check it out, click the heading.

50,000 New Jobs Created in January Baffles Analysts

Most of these jobs were attributed to the booming economies in BC and Alberta.

I find it odd that the analysts seem to have 8 different ideas as to why this has happened. Some say immigration, some say it is the west, some say that monthly figures don't dictate trends.

Good article, but a bit more economics driven in its laguage.

Click the above heading to check it out.

Is it just me or is every province using the "We are going to draw workers from other provinces" solution to the Labour Shortage?

We have got to start making better solutions to this problem! Every province is saying they are going to draw workers from other provinces! Well it seems to me, no matter how many lines are put in a pond, it never increases the fish in the pond. We are fighting to get people to come to our respective provinces and we are fighting over the same pool of workers. Does this make sense?

If Saskatchewan is putting a campaign to draw people back to Alberta and Alberta is advertising in BC and BC is promoting low taxes to bring in people from Saskatchewan, is this just one big circle with no new options for workers being created?

We need to look at viable alternatives to change this problem.

How about scaled retirement for boomers? 55 - 35 hours per week, 60 - 30 hours per week, 65 - 25 hours per week & 70 - 20 hours per week? Wouldn't this stretch out the impact of the boomers retirment while allowing 15 years of skill transfer to a younger genreation. There would be benefits for both the Boomer who doesn't want to work full time but doesn't want to retire fully as well as helping the the company to not lose valuable workers and skills lost in transition.

And what is amazing, this is 100% implementable now! That is a solution. Jus tmy reading Boom, Bust, Echo and seeing his ideas working.

What are we doing?! 91% of the Labour Shortage is in Non-Professional Areas - 61% is Immigrants are in the Professional Category

Great article outlining the Labour Shortage and the current immigration procedures. It just shows hoe backwards things are to recruit immigrants and the type of immigrants we are actually attracting.

Click the title and read the article.

EU to cherry-pick migrant workers ... Oops, we aren't the only ones planning on using the immigraction to solve our Labour problems?

Thats right folks, check out the article here. Apparently there is little competition from the EU in regards to foreign workers!

You see the Baby Boom dilemma has the greatest impact on Canada and North America. But we aren't the only ones who are dealing with this. Australia and Europe both experienced their own form of a baby boom as defined so popularily by David Foote in his work Boom, Bust, Echo.

If you get a chance, read that book, it is just amazingly easy to read and informative.

Now, the jist of this article talks about how the EU is dealing with immigration as a way to solve their Labour Force woes.

Click the heading to check it out.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise ... "Construction employment records set"

"Lower Mainland employment at 110,700 persons in January 2007!"

This is again a great example of stats being compiled and backing up my opinion that trades, technical and industrial based jobs are booming at a staggering rate which is far greater then any other areas!

And by the way, please remember that some of these 2% labour increases, are from December 2006 to January 2007. Yeah, that is right!

And on top of that, some regions are seeing double digit increases in labour over a past year!

"Construction highlights from the January 2007 Labour Force Survey include:

Regional Analysis

• Lower Mainland-Southwest rose 2 per cent (2,200 persons) in January 2007 over December 2006.

• Vancouver CMA employment saw a 1.8 per cent increase (1,600 persons)

• Abbotsford was up 3.7 per cent (300 persons).

• Lower Mainland-Southwest increased 11.5 percent (11,400 persons) in January 2007 compared to January 2006.

• Construction employment in Vancouver rose 11.8 per cent (9,800 persons).

• Abbotsford CMA dipped 7.6 per cent (700 persons).

British Columbia and Canada

• B.C.’s seasonally adjusted construction employment climbed 3.4 per cent (6,300 persons) in January 2007 over last month.

• Year-over-year, actual construction employment in B.C. was up 15.8 per cent (25,600 persons) in January 2007 over the same month last year.

• National construction employment was up 0.8 per cent (seasonally adjusted) in January over December.

• Canada’s year-over-year gain was 4.4 per cent."


I am not saying that everyone should go be a framer, welder, electrician or plumber. What I am saying is we should encourage alot more then we currently are as opposed to churning our Bachelor of Arts in Basket Weaving graduates who walk out to say: "There is no Labour Shortage"!

Check out the article by clicking the heading.

This isn't a made up phenomenon! Looming labour shortage a worry for unions, and companies

I hear a ton of people talk about the myth of the job boom. It was my whole goal to start this blog so that I could share stats and information from real sources in regards to the Labour & Skill Shortage we are encountering.

In the last few articles I have referenced governmental, private sector and industry association sources outlining current trend as being real and based on sound research and study.

Here is another article, based on Union feed back, that states the impact they see happening because of the current state of our Labour Force.

Great read, check out the article by clicking on the heading.

Labour shortage does not benefit everybody

Great stats in here from a recent, 2006 based, study by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Read the whole article, but here are some of the great bits of information found in this article:

"A 2006 study conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business revealed that more than half of Canadian owners of small and medium-sized businesses had great concerns about the labour shortage. The survey polled nearly 12,000 businesses from coast to coast.

Nearly two-thirds of firms expected labour shortages over the next five years. Firms with the most dismal expectations were larger firms, and firms who have had to hire employees during the last five years.

These are the firms with the most hiring experience and the greatest human resource needs."

They do a great job of framing the problem specifically:

"Nationally, the difficulties in hiring workers were linked to either skills shortages, meaning a limited supply of particular skill sets related to certain occupations, or overall labour shortages."


Then they give stats on the overall issues of both Labour and Skills shortages and what is actually happening, not what people think is happening. Bottom line, the vast majority of companies are experiencing only SKILL SHORTAGES, it is nearly half (40%)! :

"Nationally, more than one-third of Canada’s small and medium-sized businesses experienced shortages of both skills and labour. One-fifth of respondents were impacted by a labour shortage only, while more than 40 per cent of respondents had been only impacted by the skills shortage."


And finally, not to say I told you so, but I told you so! I have had discussions with everyone from close family to work collegues about the fact that we push the majority of our youth in to post secondary education. Yet I see the the majority of new job growth/demand in areas that don't require it extensive post secondary education! Anyways, here is some mind boggling stats that show post secondary jobs aren't in nearly the demand as technical, apprenticeship and trades related jobs! Check it out:

"The hardest hit areas for finding employees included jobs that require college or apprenticeship education (42 per cent), or occupations requiring secondary school education or job-specific training (32 per cent).

It was relatively easy to find people for jobs requiring a university degree or managerial occupations. Within the occupations hardest hit by the labour shortage were trades and skilled transport and equipment operators (66 per cent)."

Anyways, check out the article by clicking on the title.

Labor Pangs to Worsen - BC struggling to meet labour shortage and blame youth attitudes as major factor.

WOW, this article is an amazing article as well as a terrible one, all in the same chunk of writing.

It is full of great stats like:

"The 600,000 seniors now in B.C. will double to 1.2 million aged 65-plus in 20 years, speakers told a GVRD-led forum on labour and immigration issues in Surrey. Barely 100,000 people are projected to enter the labour force to offset the loss."

as well as ...

"Intensifying the challenge is the construction boom luring workers from other sectors.

The value of major construction projects underway has climbed from $65 billion two years ago to $110 billion now, said Keith Sashaw, president of Vancouver Regional Construction Association."

Great, tangible stats that people can use to dicuss and show examples of the Canada wide Labour Shortage.

They again back up what many other sources have been saying, post secondary education is looked at by most of the population as the "give all take all" in finding employment and it has really crippled some sectors.

Clearly, the construction sector is booming and yet culturally, we tend to look at those kinds of jobs as "dirty", "mindless" or "low paying". This is simply not the case and hasn't been for years.

Now the article also make blanket statements about youthful generations that are very stereotypical yet commonly held by alot of people, like the following:

" 'We have a cultural problem,” forum participant Susan Jones said, adding many Canadians have been guilty of being “snobs” who believe their children must go to university and nothing less will do.

Jones said she could name 20 young people “basically sitting around with their fingers up their nose because they sneer at a lot of jobs.' "

Apparently someones own personal experience or view point dictates actual trends about a group of people. We don't allow this in regards to race, sex, religion or even sexual orientation anymore yet I hear alot of these sentiments from people in my line of work.

I can tell you from experience alot of my "20 something" are great workers. The majority have been in long term jobs, show up for work on time and even work in jobs that are so called "dirty", "mindless" or "low paying", yet they live at the same or above my standard of living.

Just wish this mentality would be put to bed, it only frustrates the youthful populations even more then they already are. Plus, in all honesty it is a prejudiced stance to hold.

Anyways, check out the article by clicking on the heading.

Industry groups join forces to fight IT labour shortage

Very interesting article showing how IT industry associations and private sector companies are partnering to try and develop solutions to the current Labor & Skill Shortages.

Interesting quote:

"The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) and CIPS said they hope to address an anticipated labour shortage of 89,000 workers by 2011."

That is just astonishing. I wonder if that stat means skills shortage and not labour shortage. I am trying to track down the formal definitions of both those terms.

Anyways, check out the article by clicking on the heading.

Does Alberta REALLY have a JOB BOOM?

Here is a concept that has been a tough one to cover. Friends and clients all the time make comments that they haven't seen much benefit from the so-called "Job Boom" here in Alberta. Yet company after company and employer after employer comment almost daily that they are struggling to fill key job vacancies.

So which is it? Is there a boom or isn't there?

Well what I would like to suggest that the answer to that question is BOTH, um .... sort of.

First, companies are struggling to fill employment needs, this is a fact. I can only talk directly from a contractors point of view in the Alberta market, but it is very apparent from many different sources that this booms is very much a reality.

Over the recent months the Government of Alberta has been providing a wide variety of stats informing the public, its staff and even its contractor, that even if it forced everyone who is able to work into a job, there would still be a shortage of in excess of 10,000+ workers. There has also been stats passed around but numerous sources claiming that the Alberta work force will be 100,000 short within the next 3-5 years. (Stats like this are very common. Unfortunately what I find, is that these stats differ greatly from source to source. It is my hope that I can do some extensive research and post some "actual" stats in the very near future.)

But even if we are to look at the at the low end of the spectrum, we are still facing a substantial deficit of workers in Alberta. We have had the Provincial Government agency that deals with employment just recently change its name completely from:

Alberta Human Resources & Employment

to

Alberta Employment, Immigration & Industry

This is the first time, self-admittedly, that the Alberta Government has had to look at Employers or "Industry" as a client. There is just such a need by employers for workers that the problem has grown to large to be ignore. The government, as well as their contractors, are currently in a huge scramble to try and identify, develop and implement viable solutions to the current Alberta Boom.

Now with that intro, let me explain a concept that is HUGELY over looked when we hear JOB BOOM. There are two major factors in most JOB BOOMS - 1) LABOUR SHORTAGES and 2) SKILL SHORTAGES:

Labour Shortage - is an overall shortage of workers within a current labour force

Skill Shortage - is a shortage of specific workers with specific skill sets within the current labour force

(Please be aware these are very simplified definitions as well as the fact that there are numerous factors, not just these two, that lead to JOB BOOMS.)

Just because we hear "JOB BOOM" doesn't mean that we are automatically dealing with both JOB shortages and a SKILL shortages. It may be that only one factor is affecting a certain area or province, yet we are generally us the term "JOB BOOM" to describe a complicated issue.

Find using the term "JOB BOOM", is similar to saying that I have a cold or I am sick. There are some general causes of colds or sickness, but to say that I am generally "sick" or "have a cold" simply states that I am experiencing a problem with common symptoms.

When examined, these symptoms can be caused by anything from a general cold to pneumonia or even more serious, life threatening ailments.

So if someone with where to say:

"I have a cold and I tried Neo Citran but it didn't help at all! I am so mad, I am still stuffed up and have a hard time breathing even though it says that it treats nasal and chest congestion."

It may be that they have purchased a bad batch of medication or that they TREATMENT they chose for the symptoms is actually the wrong one. If you have pneumonia, no amounts of Neo Citran will be able to help you, you need a specialized treatment to be able to remove that problem from your body.

This is very similar to my friends saying:

"There is no JOB BOOM, I have been looking for work for over 3 months now and I can't find any job that fits my skills. I am a computer programmer, with 20 years experience and I am having to work in a job making $10.00 an hour just to make the ends meet! This so called JOB BOOM is a joke!"

They have mistakenly viewed the Alberta JOB BOOM, like a common cold, requires a general fix. They have assumed that every sector requires workers, which is the general fix (Neo Citran) attributed to a LABOUR SHORTAGE. And just as in the above example, no matter how much of a general treatment someone takes, if it is a more complex or even different illness, it would solve the problem.

This computer programmer is in a sector that has an over abundance of workers, or what is commonly referred to as a SKILL SURPLUS. It doesn't mean that just because he can't find work in his sectors of choice, that the whole JOB BOOM is a farce.

He is trying to treat the WHOLE JOB BOOM with a general treatment when it is requiring a specific treatment which, namely large amounts of workers in SPECIFIC SECTORS OF HIGH DEMAND. Some sectors, like a $10.00/hr Customer Service job at Tim Horton's, are screaming for workers with specific skills to fill large voids in the service sector.

Now some will say that is the Timmy's example is a LABOUR SHORTAGE because anyone can do it! And I will respond to those comments, I will respond with a challenge. Go out to any service or restaurant based company, and see if ANYBODY can do that job in reality.

I have heard more people complain about bad service, poor food quality, long line ups and sub-par experiences atservice companies and restaurants then talk of the weather. It is common problem that most everyone can see. So in my opinion, clearly it isn't just a LABOUR SHORTAGE, it is also a SKILL SHORTAGE. Not only can't they find workers to fill thes service jobs that are available but the individuals who are filling them are deficent functional skills to do the job right.

Hope that makes some kinda sense? Sorry for the length, I will try and limit it to quick thoughts from now on.

Agree or Disagree, new insight is always welcomed,

The Boomsdayer

What in the WORLD is the BOOMSDAYER?

Hey there,

My name is Aaron Sheppard and I have been working in the field of Career Development and Employment Consulting for over 8 years now.

One of the most rewarding areas of my work is providing individuals and groups with relevant informaiton in regards to key issues that effect our economy, our labour force and our employment opportunities wtihin the current Job Boom and/or Skill and Labour Shortage. There are numerous authors, futurists, academics and general reporters who are constantly researching and developing concepts and information about this phenomenon.

To make a long story short, I am developing this blog as a resource site for Career Developers, Employment Consultants and anyone else for that matter, who is seeking information on the topic of Canada and North America's Job Boom and/or Skill and Labour Shortage.

Please feel free to make comments and ask me questions as needed. I love this topic and would appreciate any feedback or links from others in regards to information that is relevant to this area.

Blessings & Peace,


Aaron Sheppard