Greenhouse IndustryAE&I Programs & Services

Medicine Hat & Area

Labour Market Information

Unemployment rate:– February 2010: 6.4%– January 2010: 6.0%– February 2009: 4.7%

Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, Economic Region Lethbridge-Medicine Hat

Labour Market Information

• Alberta is projected to experience a labour shortage of approximately 77,000 workers between 2009 and 2019

Labour Market Information

• Alberta’s population was estimated to be 3.7 million as of January, 2010, 68,093 more than in January 2009.

• This represents an annual growth rate of 1.87 per cent, compared to the national average of 1.2 per cent.

AE&I South Region Strategic Priorities 2010/11

• Connecting Albertans with the local labour market

• Providing training opportunities to meet labour market needs

Industry & Employer Toolkit

• Based on 4 key workforce themes:

1. Inform

• Contains information such as occupational supply and demand data, industry profiles, and labour market statistics.

2. Attract

• Focuses on bringing new employees into the Alberta labour force, including resources on topics such as recruitment strategies, immigration and information directed at tapping into underutilized labour market groups.

3. Develop

• Concentrates on ways to enhance and upgrade the skills of your current employees, including information such as available educational and apprenticeship programs.

4. Retain

• Provides strategies and methods to help keep your current workers engaged, satisfied and willing to stay. Materials include how to keep safe and healthy workplace environments, creating more flexible work arrangements, ideas on delaying the retirement of valuable, highly skilled employees and more.

Onsite Recruitment

• Employer Connections - Job seekers and career changers meet employers face-to-face to find out about current job vacancies.

Southeast Alberta Guide to Career & Employment Services

• eg: Community Employment Services (offering employer services: casual labour pool, job board and employee selection,recruitment and screening)

Finding Work Series

• Collection of employer, occupational, and community profiles

Workforce Attraction and Retention Partnerships Program

• Assists employers and employer associations take timely and direct action to attract and retain workers.

Workforce Attraction and Retention Partnerships Program

• Projects must support attraction and retention activities that fall under one or more of the following categories:

Workforce Attraction and Retention Partnerships Program

• Connect employers and employer associations to current knowledge and resources that will support the attraction and retention of workers.

• Promote information sharing about effective practices within the employer community (for example, career fairs, conferences and effective practice forums).

• Pilot test and/or apply tools, techniques and processes that assist in the attraction and retention of workers (for example, job counselling and retention supports to employers of under represented group members).

Workforce Attraction and Retention Partnerships Program

• Each project must include one or more partners contributing financial or in-kind resources to the project.

• Partners who do not have the capacity to act successfully on their own to address attraction and retention issues are eligible for assistance under this program.

• Partners include those organizations that recognize that there is a workforce issue, want to solve it and are willing to work together to address the issue.

• Projects are intended to be project-based, finite and not dependent upon future funding.

Workforce Attraction and Retention Partnerships Program

• Connect employers and employer associations to current knowledge and resources that will support the attraction and retention of workers.

• Promote information sharing about effective practices within the employer community (for example, career fairs, conferences and effective practice forums).

• Pilot test and/or apply tools, techniques and processes that assist in the attraction and retention of workers (for example, job counselling and retention supports to employers of under represented group members).

Thank you

Melanie FriesenBusiness & Industry Liaison