One of the biggest differences I have noticed since making the move from Ontario to Alberta is the overabundance of available jobs – they're everywhere!
Just flip through the back of the Nouvelle and you will see pages and pages of job advertisements. Companies all over the Lakeland are struggling to find enough employees to run their businesses.
This totally surprised me. I had heard about how Alberta was the place to go if you were looking for work. I just didn't realize how easy jobs are to find out here.
I know people in Ontario who've spent months looking for a job and have been unsuccessful. Even the minimum wage jobs at a Tim Horton's or A&W are unavailable.
Back in Ontario I worked at a grocery store during my high school years and was lucky to get 20 hours a week on a consistent basis. Full-time summer employment during my college years was basically impossible to find. I ended up working one summer on the night crew because it offered a minimum of 35 hours a week.
Most Ontarians I know are happy with any type of employment they can find.
I've come to realize that it's almost the complete opposite out here.
The unemployment rate for the Bonnyville/Cold Lake region is way down, which basically means anyone could find a job here.
It's not even close to the same job market in other provinces.
In July, five provinces saw a drop in employment due to a loss of jobs, with the biggest decline coming in Quebec, where over 30,000 jobs were lost, pushing the unemployment rate in that province up to 8.2 per cent, according to the July Labour Force Survey by Statistics Canada.
The survey revealed Ontario's unemployment rate to be 7.6 per cent, slightly above Canada's overall number at 6.3 per cent.
The United States isn't any better, sitting at 7.4 per cent after July.
Second only to Saskatchewan among Canadian provinces, Alberta's unemployment rate is sitting at 4.5 per cent. The province actually gained over 17,000 jobs in July, the third significant gain in the past four months.
Stats show that this region is one of the best places in all of North America in terms of employment.
Not many people are complaining about not having a job, or attempting to deal with rolling lay-offs like other citizens in our country.
Sure there are still issues out here. Businesses are struggling to find workers, which affects services. The wages earned by the many people in the area aren't even close to the big bucks being raked in by those working in the oil fields, and that can cause problems related to inequity. But those are other issues for another day.
