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Alberta isn't far away from a labour shortage worse than the one it suffered during the last boom, says the head of a provincial business group.

The problem with the unemployment rates that are published on StatsCan or the Government of Alberta is they're taken in such large census districts, they can't tell where there (are), in fact, currently labour shortages," Kobly said.

Most of the job gains occurred in the professional, scientific and technical services category, which added 13,300 jobs; and in the forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas category, which added 6,100.

The main thing we talked about yesterday at the ONEdmonton forum was economic development. In addition to breakouts and other discussion, we had two informative presentations that I hope to blog about over the next while. In her presentation on Diversifying Edmonton’s Economy, Tammy Fallowfield, EEDC’s Executive Director of Economic Development, touched on shifting the “Alberta Advantage”. Here’s what her slide said: Remain relatively low tax Not a low cost environment Not a surplus of labour Not a currency ‘bargain’

How about our labour force? All across Canada the population is aging, and that (along with our very low fertility rate) is going to lead to labour shortages. Here’s a graph from Alberta’s Occupational Demand & Supply Outlook, 2009-2019 (PDF), that shows this trend for our province:

There are many consequences as a result of this trend, not the least of which is Alberta’s challenge to attract and retain labour. Our taxes will likely also be impacted – an older population means higher costs for health care, and a slow growing labour force means a slow growing tax base.

Finding ways to deal with an impending labour shortage will top the list for Edmonton's Chamber of Commerce this year, says incoming chair Bernie Kollman

The chamber board will also visit Saskatoon in April to talk with business leaders there about what they are doing to engage their aboriginal community. "They have done some creative things with their aboriginal population and workforce development, and we'd like to see that," Kollman said.

ConsiderCanada.com and CanadaEnTete.com, two new Web sites that provide comprehensive information for global companies considering expansion into North America.

According to the World Economic Forum, Canada has benefited from the soundest banking system in the world for the last three years running. For the eighth consecutive time, KPMG's Competitive Alternatives study finds Canada leading the G7 with the lowest business costs. The C.D. Howe Institute, which studies social and economic policy, also stated that Canada's international reputation as a destination for capital and investment is better than it has been for a generation

Economic development professionals from Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Québec City, Winnipeg, the Waterloo Region, and Saskatoon work together every day to guide international companies to the Canadian city or cities that offer the most strategic fit," says Michael Darch, Executive Director of OCRI's Ottawa Global Marketing team. "ConsiderCanada.com and CanadaEnTete.com are the latest tools at our disposal to bring new opportunities home.

The biggest impact a planning school would have is bringing a good brain trust of urban designers to Edmonton, and getting people to talk about planning in a more serious manner,

Currently, budding urban planners must leave Edmonton in order to continue their education. That’s what happened to urban planner and transit advocate Brian Gould. He left over two years ago to get his masters in urban planning at the University of California, Berkeley, and now lives in Vancouver. The 24-year-old helped establish the Transit Riders Union of Edmonton (TRUE), and wrote on transit issues for a local daily.

“Edmontonians being trained in the city, that’s a benefit right there,” he says, “but there’s also a steady stream of free work coming out of studio projects.”

Bradford, the education authority found that in some neighbourhoods schools were increasingly polarising into becoming all white or all-non white. This was allowing little opportunity for children to learn more about each other. A process of linking between over 70 local schools has now led to much closer co-operation and joint working between staff and pupils. Pupils have on average made 2.6 new cross-cultural friendships since the project began

twinning

TDSB provides for low-achieving students individual support in the classroom and access to language learning in the students’ native language. TDSB supports also efforts to involve parents, neighbourhoods and ethnic communities.

Is President Obama's laser-like focus on students going to and graduating from college all wrong?

According to a team researchers out of Harvard, yes. The just-released "Pathways to Prosperity" (PDF) report claims that instead of making college the ultimate goal, students actually need vocational education for so-called blue collar professions.

Forty-seven million new jobs will be created by 2018, and although almost two-thirds will require some education beyond high school, they won't all require a college degree. Some of the fastest growing jobs—like construction worker, electrician, dental hygienist, police officer, or home health care aide—only require vocational certificates or specialized training.

Calgary's mayor tells Marcus Gee how he plans to realize Jane Jacobs' vision on the Prairies. He just has to convince the developers

But can he get Calgary to buy in? To an outsider, at least, sprawling, car-dependent Calgary seems to be an unlikely place to realize his Jane Jacobs-inspired ideas about livable cities.

Building Up: Making Canada's Cities Magnets for Talent and Engines of Development, he argued that the successful city of the future will be a place in which: "People live where they work and play. Density is high. Public transit is a preferred choice. Young people can afford to live downtown. Classes and socio-economic backgrounds are mixed ...

Growing War for Talents Looms as U.S. Economy Continues to Recover

the world has entered a new age, where employers will be awakened to the power of humans as the future drivers of economic growth as access to talent replaces access to capital as the key economic differentiator.

Aging workforces, the collaborative power of rapidly-evolving technologies, the need for companies to do more with less, and the problem of the skills young people are being equipped with not matching the skills businesses need are converging, making talent attraction and retention critical in order for organizations to gain a competitive edge

For decades now, at least one-third of the city's 12,000 employees, mainly office workers and professionals, have had a deal where they can work a bit of extra time each day, then take off every second Friday as a holiday.

The argument is that you have to do something like this to make the job attractive or else you won't be able to keep staff. But I can't think of anybody I know outside of government that gets every second Friday off. Can you?

've always thought it's not necessary to retain staff by giving them every second Friday off. ... I'm not buying the logic of the policy."

we usually treat productive capacity as fixed, and worry about making full use of it

Turnover in the labour market is almost as rapid. In a previous Economy Lab post, I noted that the typical flows in and out of employment are much larger than the net flows. Roughly a quarter of a million people enter and leave the workforce each month; the net change in December was an increase of 22,000.

These are not all the same people going in and out of unemployment: roughly half of those employed have been with their current employer for five years or less. Even among workers 55 and older, 40 per cent have had the same job for ten years or less. The data from the 1970s are similar, so this mobility is not a new phenomenon.

What if, however, you were told most of your mortgage or all of your rent could be paid off instantly, or you could send your kids to a national daycare program? Still bored? Yet that’s exactly what could have happened if Canada didn’t have a productivity gap with the U.S., according to Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Canada trails the U.S. in GDP per capita by $9,300. In 1981 that gap was only $2,600. If we got back to the 1981 gap, the average family would see their disposable, after-tax income go up by $8,800, according to the institute, which is the research arm for the task force chaired by Martin.

That would be like having almost all the mortgages and rental payments disappear. It would be like having enough money to pay for a national child-care program and still have enough left over for the biggest tax cut in history

It is a truth universally acknowledged that education is the key to economic success. Everyone knows that the jobs of the future will require ever higher levels of skill. That’s why, in an appearance Friday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Obama declared that “If we want more good news on the jobs front then we’ve got to make more investments in education.”

But what everyone knows is wrong.

technological progress is actually reducing the demand for highly educated workers.

Government of Canada consults on immigrant skilled worker program

To stay competitive globally, we have to make sure the skilled immigrants we choose are the ones that we need, and the most likely to succeed when they get here,” said Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. “Research points to some key changes that will help us meet those goals.”