economy
ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER As the competition for talent intensifies, employers are offering more compensation—but is it enough?
Since data were first collected on wages offered for vacant positions in British Columbia (in Q1 2015), said offered wages have risen faster than those for filled positions. This is a somewhat intuitive observation when one considers the labour market context during this recent past—namely, that unemployment rates have been declining (the pandemic spike notwithstanding). In other words, an increasingly tight labour market here in BC—which is associated with fewer idle workers—has compelled employers to raise the compensation needed to attract workers to their organization at a relatively robust pace. Between Q1 2015 and Q1 2020, for example, the average offered hourly wage (for vacant positions) rose by 21.5%; in comparison, the median hourly wage (for those in employment) rose by only 13.0%.
This trend characterized much of our pandemic experience, too. Indeed, from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021, the average offered hourly wage for vacant roles jumped by 7.4%, compared to an only 3.5% lift for those in jobs. Since then (through Q4 2021), the narrative has changed slightly, with the offered wage rate for unfilled roles falling by 2.2%, while that of filled positions rose by 2.0%. Is this the beginning of a new trend, or merely a blip in the established historical trend? We can’t say for sure at this point, but an increasingly tight labour market points to continued elevated wage pressure for roles that employers are looking to fill.
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