Wages and salaries

Alberta Employment and Immigration commissions a detailed wage and salary survey every two years.  The survey provides information on wages and salaries for full-time and part-time employees in Alberta by occupation, geographic area and industry1.  The latest survey was conducted in 2009 and for the first time wage and salary estimates have been prepared for Alberta’s 14 economic regions. 

In 2009, the average hourly wage was $23.05 in the Slave Lake region2, 5.3% less than the Alberta average of $24.34 per hour. 

The industry in the region with the largest number of reported employees was healthcare and social services, followed by retail trade.  Most of the industries for this region have too few reported employees for the estimates to be reliable.  Only the six industries in the below table had more than 100 reported employees3.  The industry with the highest average wage was the construction industry at $31.68 per hour, followed by public administration (federal, provincial and municipal government) at $30.23, and oil and gas at $28.86.

The average number of hours worked per week was 39.3 for the region and 37.3 for all of Alberta.  The industry with the most average hours was the construction sector at 51.6 hours, followed by transportation and warehousing at 48.2 and oil and gas at 45.6 hours.    

As the below table clearly indicates, labour shortage issues are not confined to Alberta’s urban core.  The Slave Lake region had an 8.4% vacancy rate4 in 2009, compared with Alberta’s 3.0%.  Moreover, the region also reported more hiring difficulties5 than Alberta (48% versus 41%).  Hiring difficulties were particularly acute in healthcare and social services (82%), construction (66%), and transportation and warehousing (61%). 

1 http://alis.alberta.ca/wageinfo 
2 The number of survey respondents for small regions may be too small to provide accurate overall wage estimates
3 Only industries or occupations with more than 100 reported employees were included in the analysis
4 The percentage of total positions in this industry reported as unfilled for over four months
5 Percent of employers with hiring difficulties with

Date Updated:
RDP-2411