Labour Economic Monitor (Fall 2006)

The general picture of the Alberta economy is very positive: sources from the business press to Statistics Canada are celebrating the boom, and the data seem to bear them out. On the other hand, there are some serious questions about how much benefit average working Albertans are actually reaping from all this activity. Wages do not seem to be growing as fast as they should be, and inflation is eating up what gains workers do make.

So are we all getting rich? Apparently not. The story seems to be: huge profits for the corporate sector, and longer hours of work for employees. There’s something wrong with this picture, and we will try to figure out what it is in the next edition of Labour Economic Monitor.