Paul Martin's Business Update - September 30th

Sep 30, 2013, 04:15 PM

The stress on employers to find talent just might be easing.

There were a couple indicators in July that point to something of a softening in the labor market in this province. This has been a worker’s market where there were more jobs than people to fill them. That generally led to higher wages as employers sweetened the pot in hopes of luring someone to fill a vacant position.

But then July came along. We saw claims for employment insurance take a big jump – up 21 percent. That could have been layoffs or more people moving into the province than there were jobs for them. And while we were watching that statistics with some interest it was just that – one statistic. But now we have a second that points to much the same story.

The average weekly pay package for workers in Saskatchewan dropped by $10 in July, usually something you’d expect to see in a softening market. Either wages in general fell or, more likely, overtime was dropping, but both factors that point to a slight shift in favor of employers.

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