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Mya Prehn peeks out from inside a human hamster ball, one of the more popular attractions at a student carnival held at William E. Hay Composite High School on Friday, Dec. 5. Please see our story on Page 4.
Low unemployment rates makes for employees’ market Stacey Lavallie INDEPENDENT REPORTER With an unemployment rate in east-central Alberta at 2.6 per cent, the job market in the community is definitely that of the employee, according to at least one employer in town. When the employment rate falls so low, it becomes difficult to find and to keep employees, according to Chris Strachey, the regional communications manager for Alberta Works. A comfortable unemployment rate for a community is about five per cent, he noted. “If it’s under five per cent, employers start having job vacancies or begin having a hard time keeping employees,” he said. While he said Alberta’s booming job market – one of the most
aggressive market in the country for the past several years – has changed, Alberta is still a destination province for people from the eastern provinces, where good-paying work can be harder to find. The era of people coming with no experience and being able to pick up a high-paying job simply by being present is coming to an end, however. “We don’t see as much of that now,” he said. “For people with experience and with a good work ethic, though, the opportunities still exist.” Though the east-central area stretches from Red Deer all the way to the Saskatchewan border, Strachey was able to elaborate more on Stettler specifically. “There are 52 Stettler jobs posted on the Canada-Alberta job bank right now in a wide va-
riety of fields, including trades, health care, retail, oil field, transportation, warehousing, sales, agriculture and restaurants,” he said in an email. “Jobs range from high-skill to lowskill/entry level.” Alberta Works Centre in Stettler has a consistent flow of clients, with about 400 visits per month, he said, adding that the number is just heads through the door. Some people may come more than once. According to Strachey, the province is likely to be short 96,000 workers by 2023. When the markets collapsed in 2008, even Alberta’s employment dipped, but numbers from the province show a steady increase over the past several years. In October 2013, the province saw roughly 2,230,500 employed. This year, the number
has risen to just over 2,290,000. Hospitality struggles to keep employees People visiting Boston Pizza can find its manager, Matt Ghesquire, taking on all sorts of duties. Some days he works in the kitchen and other days he acts as host. He’s delivered pizzas to households and he’s acted as a server. “You can’t have this sort of job unless you’re willing to work 70-hour weeks,” he said during a brief break. Ghesquire has managed Boston Pizza for a year now, but has a long history in the service industry. He was brought to Stettler by his employer to learn the kitchen, as aspect of the job with which he was not yet familiar, and he found himself becoming the restaurant manager instead. continued on page 4
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