The Alberta Economy
 

What are your thoughts on the future ? With economists predicting a deficit of 100,000 workers in ten years, this is going to be a wild ride.

I know I'm seeing it all around me,... workers leaving jobs for better pay, all the lower paid jobs begging for workers. No way to hire out of province/country because there is no place for them to live.

Fast food going downhill rapidly........

maybe we could send you back some of your homeless that ralph bought bus tickets for. just to help out, fairs fair right?

ooooh ... bitter :razz:

We have some more laying around on the streets downtown ... what address do we send them to again ? :razz: :wink:

As to the question ... I am in the homebuilding industry and we are seeing a massive migration to the area ... the problem is we keep losing workers to the oil industry or commercial projects downtown so the cost of building a new home keeps getting pushed higher and higher to meet the salary demands of the workers in the trades

Re: fast food

I heard there's a BK near Chinook that is only open for drive thru due to not being able to hire staff. One of our office clerks just quit after a few days to go work at MacDonalds for more :lol:

I think the "minimum" wage here is somewhere around $12-14 even for kids 14 to work at McDonalds. Hotels can't rent out rooms because they cannot find anyone to clean rooms. It's pretty crazy. I have half done reno's in my house - not because I have not paid top dollar but just because they have so much work they cannot get back out to my place.

My lease is up in Oct.Depending on how high my rent gets jacked,I may leave for BC.I make good $$$$ but if Im paying it all out for rent,its better to go somewhere else.

There's work in BC? Tell us where!

Everywhere, what do you do? Lots of jobs in Vancouver.

Any leads on programming jobs? My brother is currently looking for work in the Vancouver area in that field.

http://www.topproducer.com/Careers/listings.asp

Tell them Dan Anderson sent you. There is a bounty on good workers. :biggrin:

I'll let my brother know. Thanks a lot!

tell him to move to the states he can easy get 200% more money down south.

I was so embarassed to be Albertan when that happened.

I worry about things like my rent going double of course but I think there are other things to consider. There's no question that we are in for some localized inflation pressure, when the guy making your fries makes $12/hr fries are going get more expensive.

Historically boom times has been followed by bust time. I remember working in DT Edmonton in the late ninties and seeing all that big retail space like Manulife West empty. It could happen again.

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Right now my company is researching the market to re-evaluate the pay structure for all of us. They don't want to loose us to higher paying companies, so they will probably end up giving everyone raises. Which is good because I need to get a bigger house by winter.

Not all doom and gloom in Alberta. However, I do agree that we're caught up in a catch 22 with employment and housing. Hopefully the economy finds equilibrium gradually rather than a sudden crash.

I'm still trying to figure out house prices and what going to happen to the people who have 30yr mortgages on $640K, 1700sqft when it all comes crashing down.

It happened in vancouver before. People had paid off $100,000 of their $1,000,000 mortgage and the values crashed and their houses were only worth $700,000. There were a lot of people who just walked away.

I'll be going to the Kellowna/Vernon area if I go.I drive a truck,so lots of work.I have family there already,so they have been comming up with some leads for me.

What some ppl in Calgary did during the 80's boom,was to second morgage their house,then when everything crashed they had cash.Then declared bankrupsy( that is very bad spelling :) sorry) and walked away from everything with money in their pockets.

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Unemployment in Manitoba is at an all-time low. Apparently there's a huge labour force shortage because everyone has moved to Alberta (certainly not because empolyment opportunities are great here...). This seems to have been a trend for about a decade; I'm quite surprised to hear that Alberta is having problems too.

Screw it, I'm joining the military. :twised:
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Our construction buisness is at an all time high. They cant keep up with the demand for new houses, etc. Try finding a brick layer or getting your stucco finished. Bad enough to even get yer landscaping done. :surprise:

The new flood diversion is even having trouble getting employees and the new hydro dam is going to be starting up soon.

Plus our housing costs are raising dramatically, although certainly not to the extent of BC & Alberta.

Go
 

Ha ha, construction is another beast altogether, as I understand it. My bro works for PCL as a carpenter. He says that Manitoba has the worst wages for construction workers nationally. Apparently the difference is revolting.

There actually are lots of employment opportunities here, but nothing good. I think it's a quantity vs. quality issue. Set your standards low and you might make $13/hr. That's a whopping $27000/yr. I was making $40k/yr awhile back and I still had problems keeping up with the bills while living in an "affordable" townhouse complex. I worked 50 hours a week earning $23000/yr last year. It was barely worth my while to go to work. :sad:

I figure if the cost of living in Manitoba skyrockets like in other provinces, people here will smarten up and move to a new province.
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Looked at housing prices lately? While not as bad as AB or BC, $100k gets you a nice dump in the north end.

$100,000 won't get you an outhouse in the Lower Mainland. (slight exaggeration, but not much)

Any half decent house in Burnaby is now approaching $500,000 or higher.

$135 will get you a small 2 bedroom condo. Blaaa... Don't want to be a brick in the wall.

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I've been growing quite concerned with this issue lately as well. Real estate has been skyrocketing (sp) in Calgary, but my wages haven't been. How am I supposed to buy a bigger house (with #2 on the way) without moving to a rural community? I've been tempted to start looking for work in the Kooteney's but I'm not sure if my line of work even exists out there!

Anyway, if anyone in Cow town needs to sell a 1500sq or bigger home, I'll be in the market soon.:mrgreen:

my girlfriend works at welist.com and she says daily they have houses sell before anyone has even had time to walk it or a sign put up.

Richard