One of the neat things that the government of Alberta does with the money it steals from me is conduct surveys and post the results on the web for free. For example, there’s WageInfo, the 2003 Alberta Wage and Salary Survey.
This year the survey includes “skills shortage information.” They’re trying to project a vacancy rate in each job category, and also to determine how difficult it is to fill these positions.
I had some fun looking at my current job description — “Software Engineer”. Apparently software engineer positions are pretty easy to fill — only 6% of employers report difficulty.
If the software market crashes, I could always get a job in the field I trained for — I could be a chemist. But check out that vacancy rate — 0%. Maybe not.
Unfortunately you can’t search the database by hiring difficulty or vacancy rate — at least not yet. But I played a hunch and tried “journalist”. Look at that! Vacancies at 4%, 50% of employers report hiring difficulties. It must be a great gig to be a journalist! Or maybe not.