Jobs, jobs, jobs…
Thirty-seven per cent of Greater Vancouver employers plan to hire people during the summer season, according to Manpower Canada. Given our low unemployment rate, those numbers mean pretty much anyone who wants to work will be able to work – perhaps not at the job they actually want, but hey, there’s options.
Last month, the province created 14,000 full-time jobs to lead Canada in employment growth.Gordon Campbell bashers, begone!
One, two, three! Gooooooooooo, ECONOMY!
Where did you get that stat from, the BC Liberal homepage?
All of Western Canada is booming right now, and 2 of those provinces have NDP governments. Giving Gordo credit for the job boom is a joke. All he had to do was stay out of the way and not illegally fire too many health care workers.
What a joke – your public ass kissing of Gordon Campbell just turned me off this blog for good.
Sean: That’s odd. The link to the Vancouver Sun article is right there.
Chris: I never said Gordon was the cause of the boom. I merely observed that he is presiding over it – though evidently, I’ll have to be a little clearer next time. While all of Western Canada is indeed now booming, BC got off to a very slow start, recovering from fudge-it budgets under the NDP.
Gene: Just so you’re aware, I don’t necessarily write on behalf of all the other bloggers on this site. In fact, I suspect that most of them would disagree with my sentiments. Think about that as you weep into your cornflakes.
Frankly, I didn’t see what was so terrible about observing that there’s going to be lots of jobs for everyone this summer. What, people don’t like good news?
Oops. Not the Sun. The Province. Same thing.
“What, people don’t like good news?”
Sure, they just don’t like deceit.
Ouch. Now I’m a big fat liar.
Get real.
The problem with statistics like this is that it doesn’t address the fact that most of these newly created jobs during the summer are pretty shitty minimum wage affairs. With the standard of living costs in Vancouver so high, and the BC minimum wage not going up thanks to the Liberals, taking one of these low paying jobs is not exactly the gold paved pathway to comfort.
While the Liberals can vote themselves pay raises they did not have the foresight to do the same thing for the minimum wage employees who make up the service sector and a good chunk of these new jobs.
I would agree that many of the retail jobs are probably low-paying (but still prefferable in many cases to no job at all for people looking for their first job), the stats I described are not just coming from the service sector. Construction jobs pay at least double minimum wage for anyone with a pulse and more than that for people with skills. Outside of the city, the mining industry is also hot.
One can try to explain away the hot economy with commodity prices, but in reality, a stable, pro-business government does actually have a part to play. Venezuela has oil and Zimbabwe has some of the richest agricultural land in the world, but nobody is looking to those places as economic powerhouses.
I don’t get it…are some people on this post denying that we are in a labour demand economy? I haven’t seen the statistics so some of the posts can be correct in that many of the new jobs being created are min wage, but you simply can’t deny that in every category across western provinces there is a demand for labour, especially skilled. I don’t need statistics to tell me that. Everyone I talk to in business no matter what field has the same observation….that they are desperately trying to find qualified and hard working people to fill a variety of roles. It never ceases to amaze me the level of pessimism some people will display regardless of the situation. We are in a “buyers market” when it comes to labour, and even some of the traditional min wage companies are offering greater wages and incentives to find hard working people (Just one example: McDonald’s in Ft. McMurray is offering upwards of $20/hour and in some cases contributions to university tuition to entice people to come work for them). Bitch all you want, it is an undeniable fact that the trend is positive for people in the labour force both in terms of choice and earning potential. That side of the social equation is not an issue and it is futile to try and make it one. The jobs are there, we as a society just need to focus on the other side of the equation….education, training and instilling a sense of work ethic.
“are some people on this post denying that we are in a labour demand economy”?
No. I just don’t think its solely attributable to Gordon Campbell. Most of north america is going through the same labour crisis. Its because of the baby boom. And most of north america is seeing a housing boom. Combine that with soaring interest rates, a strong canadian dollar, high commodity prices, and massive social cuts to spending including ending the tution freeze and training programs, both of which will end up hurting the labour pool in the long run.
Sean I agree with you. I think demographics combined with growing economies are the major reasons behind the labour shortage of our generation. I also agree that of course you can’t attribute it all to Campbell, but I’m sure in many cases his policies have contributed (sometimes you need to give credit where credit is due). And although I agree that far more training programs and access to education is a dire necessity, I think you have to strike that healthy balance between education subsidies and just plain hard work. This is a whole other topic of discussion, but the tuition freeze issue is not that cut and dry. I know people continue to complain about being strapped with debt after university but there are those that just accept that your education is a long term investment (and I’m one of those who just paid off his student loan after 8 years removed from uni) and those that think it is a god given right and should be free. I think there’s a healthy balance somewhere in between and clearly a debate that will go on forever.
Gene – I second that emotion. Uncriticially regurgitating an item that the Province uncritically regurgitated from the premier’s communications staff is just plain lazy blogging.
Commenting in a way that seems to put the BC Liberals in a good light isn’t uncritical regurgitation – it’s just not the anti-Gordon Campbell stance that I suspect you’d prefer. There’s a difference.
Cheers.