Hello,
Basically lads, Ireland’s job market has gone down the toilet, and I need a job, which I don’t think I will be able to procure in this country.
That means I must follow the old Irish tradition, and emigrate for a while.
The problem is, everywhere else seems to be faltering too, but, a Canadian visitor told me that certain parts of Canada are actually having a labour shortage at the moment, even with the downturn. When I was in Canada over the Summer, I noticed this myself, with ‘job available’ notices absolutely everywhere.
I was wondering if Canadian dopers could tell me what regions are looking for people, what sectors the jobs are available in, and what kind of wages could be garnered at the moment?
I can only give secondhand information, but a Canadian friend of mine who packed all his things and moved cross-country to Toronto on more or less a whim had a great deal of trouble finding even minimum wage work. His graduate degree became more or less useless there.
Well, Alberta has, like most places, slumped a little lately; but since the province was going gangbusters, we’re still doing pretty well compared to most places. There are jobs here, but be warned: if you don’t already come from Alberta and know the right people, you should be either (a) in a skilled trade, or (b) willing to take whatever McJob you can get. In the case of the latter, wages are actually pretty good, but finding a place to live and being able to afford it on those wages isn’t as easy as it sounds.
It remains true that the further north in Alberta you go, the more great-paying jobs there are; but again, the demand is for skilled trades (especially those with oilfield experience), the cost of living is quite high, and the weather conditions can, at times, be downright cruel–Fort MacMurray has been down to -30C lately.
A large amount of skilled labor shortages in Canada were caused by the boom in the Alberta oil sands. I live on the east coast and almost half of the people I worked with, left to go to Alberta. They generally work a 20 and 8 schedule, they work 20 days and fly home for 8, all expenses paid for to get you home and back by the companies. The money they were making was ridiculous, but with the huge decline in world oil prices a lot of the upcoming planned projects have been put on the back burner and postponed, leaving many with no jobs to go back to. So to close I would be very careful in coming to Canada unless you had something lined up or are not looking to make a lot of money. I would wait until this whole mess blows over, but that’s just my opinion!
You beat me to it Spoons!!! lol. I feel sorry for the people who packed up and went out, leaving good jobs here, now they still have the bills and many have new ones from new vehicles and houses, ( my property has doubled in value in the last five years because of Alberta wages driving up real estate values here) and as I am sure you know we have nothing down here to support the new lifestyle that they have created for themselves.
Even absent the Alberta boom, Canada is short of quite a lot of specific trades. Welders, machinists, CNC programmers, and truck drivers would be the most prominent examples.
I agree Rick, but, with the mess in the economy how long before we have a surplus of these people, CNC is generally tied to manufacturing and a lot of the work I have done with them has been automotive related, if things don’t turn around soon there will be more shutdowns and more unemployment, we are losing our car parts manufacturer now, and the spinoff loss will be huge here.
It should also be noted that any specialized, technical, or professional qualifications that you have must be recognized here. In some cases, that’s not really necessary (for the McJobs, for example); but every so often, the news features an immigrant who was a doctor/dentist/engineer/lawyer/etc. in the old country, but who is reduced to driving a cab or waiting tables in Canada, due to not having qualifications recognized by the profession’s Canadian or provincial governing body.
So in addition to the work permit (good advice, Worm, to look into that first), you should also make sure that your foreign qualifications will be accepted, if you plan on finding a specialized, technical, or professional job.
There are plenty of jobs to be had in Toronto so long as you’ve got the right qualifications… the thing is, people with post-secondary qualifications are a dime a dozen around here, what with three large universities and a half-dozen colleges in the city, plus another four universities a short drive away. Unfortunately, a degree (even a graduate degree) isn’t an automatic meal ticket, as your friend’s story shows.
Back in my retails days, I once had a Pakistani doctor come in to apply for a position in the stockroom with a three page resume that included various fellowships and scholarships, none of which were recognized here. It broke my heart, because he’d obviously come here hoping to be welcomed into the medical community but had come up against a wall of red tape.
Bottom line, get a job lined up and get your paperwork straight before you pack up your bags.
I hear constant tales of construction tradespeople being enticed across the street for a nickel an hour more. If you can swing a hammer (and can legally work here), I believe there’s no shortage of work for you in this city.
One whose unemployment agency makes it very easy for private companies to advertise job openings in their system, an opportunity which many employers take advantage of. It’s kind of like a free help wanted classified ad. Public sector jobs are in the system as a matter of policy. Due to our climate, we have very significant numbers of seasonal jobs, and hence a lot of people who are routinely on “pogey” (unemployment insurance) on an annual basis. Hence, the government has put significant effort into running the system in an effective manner - they’re trying to minimize the payout of unemployment benefits, as well they should.
Prior to the advent of the internet, the listings were available to jobseekers at the employment office, where they had to go anyways to file for pogey. Now both the listings and filings are online, and the employment office merely has a few computer stations available for those who don’t have their own access. By creating this venue for listing available jobs, both employers and and jobseekers are assisted and the labour market becomes more efficient. The only downside is that it is in effect subsidized competition for services like Monster. A small price to pay, imo.
Gorsnak, I think Laudenum was simply poking fun at the use of the word “adult” (as in, “What kind of government do you have, that it advertises positions for strippers and porn stars and assorted other adult entertainers?”).
I’ll echo what others have said - if you’re in Alberta and you have a trade of some sort (i.e. electrician, plumber, welder, etc) you’ll have no problem finding work, paying a good wage.
If you’re willing to go more north the wages increase. A 4th year electrician apprentice in Calgary can probably average about $35/hour - up in Fort Macleod it’s more like $44/hour. However, as has been mentioned, housing is expensive, and the reason they pay more in Fort Mac is that…well to be frank it kind of sucks. There’s nothing to do, (last I heard there wasn’t even a movie theatre), limited restaraunts & pubs, etc. However, I know a few people that have done a short stint there (i.e. 6 months) to set money aside and then move further south so it can be done.
If you have no job skills/education, well, you may be further ahead where you are.
Probably no surplus anytime soon. The shortage is quite serious - pretty much any machine shop you can find needs people immediately. Even a fairly substantial reduction in manufacturing would probably not eliminate all the empty positions.
Bear in mind that when we talk about a serious recession, we’re talking about a reduction of the economy by, say, two percent. A two percent drop in one year would be considered a brutal year. Jobs that are seriously short of labour aren’t going to go into a labour surplus position that quickly.
Of course, getting a job might require moving. One of the things that makes unemployment a sticky number is people’s unwillingness to look outside their current place of residence for a new job.