Alberta's labour market shifts as pandemic spurs workers to switch careers

When the COVID-19 pandemic halted domestic and international travel, Calgary's tourism industry took a catastrophic hit. Among those impacted was the hospitality industry.

"Of course hotels were on very limited staffing due to the lack of occupancy," said Sol Zia, executive director of the Calgary Hotel Association.

But when travel returned and temporary layoffs ended, Zia says much of that staff didn't return.

The association worked closely with the national organization Tourism HR Canada to analyze where the workers went. Zia says their analysis found that roughly one-third of the staff who didn't return to the industry found jobs in health care and long-term care support.

Another third of that staff completed a full industry change and found jobs in financial services and technology. As for the last third, Zia says it's unknown why they didn't return to the hospitality industry.

"When you look at the proportion of the workforce that didn't come back, a third is a complete mystery to us right now."

Now, the hospitality industry is struggling to find workers. Zia says there are about 700 vacant positions that have remained unfilled since late spring.

It's a common story among many sectors across Canada, including right here in Alberta — workers who have migrated between sectors during the pandemic, from jobs in the hospitality industry, to potentially more lucrative and stable positions in fields such as tech and retail.

It's causing staff shortages in the sectors workers have left behind, as they struggle to offer better compensation to attract workers due to inflation and increasing input costs.

Worker shortages for most of Alberta's hospitality industry

Roughly 80 per cent of Alberta's hospitality industry is facing staff shortages, according to Ernie Tsu, president of the Alberta Hospitality Association.

Of the entire province, Tsu says Fort McMurray and the Bow Valley area are currently in need of the most staff.

With the constant opening and closing of restaurants due to COVID-19 restrictions, Tsu says restaurants weren't able to provide staff with solid and consistent schedules, so many of them left.

"We did see a number of our staff, our culinary chefs, leave our industry for other industries that would provide far more stability."

Agriculture, manufacturing and business see labour reductions

Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist with Alberta Central, says over the pandemic, many workers went in search of steadier jobs with better conditions.

Of all industries, he says the hospitality industry was likely the hardest hit by those workers migrating to other sectors.

However, he says he's seeing similar situations in other industries.

The agriculture sector, for one, has seen a reduction in workers. It's partially because employment in the sector hasn't performed well for the past two and a half years, says St-Arnaud.

"We've seen the amount of the labour force in that area decline, but we've also seen the employment in that sector remaining weaker than what it was before the pandemic."

That's the same for the manufacturing sector, which is seeing employment remain below pre-pandemic levels.

However, St-Arnaud says some of those workers might be experiencing permanent job loss, opposed to workers leaving for other sectors.

Another sector that has seen a bit of reduction in the labour force is the business, building and other services industry, he says.

According to a statement from the Alberta government's office of the minister of labour and immigration, the main areas experiencing labour shortages are construction, transportation and warehousing and accommodation and food services.

Retail, scientific and technical jobs see job gains

Most of the job gains in the last couple of years have been in the wholesale and retail trade sector, says St-Arnaud.

Professional, scientific and technical jobs — a broad category that can go from lawyers to engineers to lab technicians and more — has also seen constant job gains since the beginning of the pandemic.

St-Arnaud says some sectors that can offer better conditions, such as higher pay, benefits and consistent hours, might be poaching workers from other industries.

"They need to attract workers so they offer better conditions and it creates a shortage in another sector," he said.

But it will take more time for sectors with no profit margin, especially with increasing input costs.

"Especially for food, for example…. It might be a bit harder for them to offer better conditions to workers and attract more workers and solve their labour shortage."

Lack of immigration plays a role, says economist

A lack of immigration into Canada over the pandemic plays a big role in why so many sectors are experiencing labour shortages, says St-Arnaud.

With weak immigration over the pandemic, Canada lost 300,000 potential foreign workers who would have joined the labour force.

And while Alberta has seen positive net interprovincial migration over the past quarter, it doesn't make up for the people who moved out of Alberta in the early stages of the pandemic.

"Alberta actually lost workers to other provinces. That also kind of created some of that reduction in the number of available workers."

St-Arnaud says creating more balance between sectors isn't an easy job, and it requires long-term strategies.

"In some ways, more migration to increase the pool of available workers will help."

For the hotel industry, Zia says recovering more employees will require governmental support. That includes potential changes to the temporary foreign worker program updates to regulations and creating new government programs to attract workers.

The Alberta government's office of the minister of labour and immigration says it's taken many steps to help minimize current and future labour shortages, including the Alberta at Work program.

It also says its Alis website, which provides information and resources for education and career planning, has been working to help Albertans succeed in their careers.

"Since the onset of the pandemic, we have seen usage of the website grow steadily with 4.6 million visits over the past 12 months. The last time alis received this many visits was in 2013, when it received 4.8 million visits."