Workers are flocking back to Alberta after a recessionary lull, with the province’s hot jobs market luring people from every region of the country.
Alberta tallied the fastest growth rate in Canada in the first quarter of the year, with its net inflow from other provinces hitting the highest level for a first quarter in five years, Statistics Canada’s preliminary population estimates show.
The numbers reveal that labour movement is bouncing back after virtually drying up in 2009 and 2010, suggesting the hiatus was only a lull in a 15-year stampede of western migration.
“It’s back to the level of a few years ago,” said Jonathan Chagnon, demographer at Statscan. “Pretty much all provinces seem to be losing to Alberta.”
Mobility is key for several reasons. For workers, it can help them land a job or better opportunity in another province, potentially boosting their earnings. For provinces that need workers, it can help fill key gaps in skills or labour shortages. Broadly, it can also reduce pressures as fewer people rely on jobless benefits or social assistance.
Jeff Blay, 22, landed in Northern Alberta earlier this month after he and his girlfriend drove from St. Catharines, Ont., for new jobs. Rather than face the prospect of more low-paying jobs outside of his field, the recent journalism grad decided to relocate.
“It seems there are a lot more opportunities for jobs out here than Ontario,” said Mr. Blay, who is now a reporter for the weekly Peace River Record Gazette, while his girlfriend, 21, is an event planner for the local chamber of commerce. “Just in our town, if you walk around, whether it’s gas stations, pizza places, accountant shops or hairdressers, there are help-wanted signs in almost every window.”
Alberta has led the country’s job growth over the past year, with employment swelling by 2.8 per cent. The province’s jobless rate is 5.4 per cent, compared with a national average of 7.4 per cent.
Last week, the province’s website launched a forecast of jobs most likely to face shortages between this year and 2013: retail trade managers, restaurant and food service managers, and mechanical and petroleum engineers. Computer programmers are also likely to be in short supply along with web designers and family physicians. It’s also running a new Facebook page on Fort McMurray jobs.
Alberta saw a net inflow of 5,275 people in the first quarter of 2011 from other provinces. It attracted people from every province except Quebec, with Newfoundland, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Ontario sending the most.
The flow of people from Newfoundland to Alberta had slowed in prior years, but that movement resumed in the first three months of this year, Mr. Chagnon said.
Trends are shifting between Saskatchewan and Alberta. Workers had left Saskatchewan for its westerly neighbour in 2005 and 2006, but that reversed in 2007, 2008 and 2010. Now, for the first quarter “Saskatchewan is again losing people to Alberta,” he said.
Manitoba also saw a net outflow, with most people going to British Columbia or Alberta.
Manpower Canada general manager Lori Procher said her recruitment firm is seeing signs of a resurgence of interprovincial hiring – and demand from Alberta’s oil patch is the leading source. “Alberta is once again finding itself challenged to find the talent it requires,” she said in a recent interview. “We’re working across the country to find individuals willing to go to Western Canada.”
Many moving west are coming from the hard-hit manufacturing belt in Southern Ontario, filling a strong demand for engineering and electronics technologists and heavy equipment operators and mechanics, she said.
The demand is so great that Ms. Procher has encouraged her own teenaged son to consider training in a skilled trade, she adds.
“I think there’s a great opportunity for young people to look at that field,” she said.
A recent survey of private- and public-sector employees by the Canadian Employee Relocation Council has found employees are “far more likely” to move to Western Canada than any other region, said chief executive officer Stephen Cryne. “We’re seeing renewed growth – unfreezing is probably a good way to describe it,” Mr. Cryne said. “The western provinces are the most likely destinations for people to relocate.”
