EclectEcon

The increased demand for labour in Alberta's oil patch has had some interesting effects. Workers commute to Northern Alberta from the Maritime provinces. Others move there from elsewhere, having been offered big pay increases. Fast-food outlets and grocery stores in Alberta have trouble finding enough labour to stay open and have taken to offering bonuses for new employees who stay longer than a few months. Young people estimate the marginal benefits of staying in school against the opportunity costs and quit school to take jobs in the oil patch.

It looks as if some of these effects are stretching as far as Nanaimo, British Columbia. Jack writes me that there are help-wanted ads all over the place; and as in Alberta, they offer bonuses for employees who take jobs and stay with them for some specified time period.

Here is an ad from the Nanaimo paper Jack sent me the other day:



Notice that the job pays $18/hour and requires no experience. Would you want to eat in that restaurant? [as all good economists would answer, "It all depends" - in this case, as in most cases, on the alternatives available].

Jack says it is

Also impossible to hire any trades folks working in the building industry. Flat-out is an understatement!