Job prospects in Canada

Dela RN · Jun 2, 2011

I work in Calgary, AB and I can say that the job prospects are definitely better than they were let's say 2 years ago but not as good as they once were. At one point they were heavily recruiting people and even paying to help with relocation. I don't think they are doing that quite as often anymore or at all.

I graduated in September 2009 and everyone that I know of in my graduating class got a job which is promising because we didn't have any experience like you obviously do. However a lot of us began working just as casuals.

Anyway here is the job website for Alberta health services: http://www.healthjobs.ab.ca/SearchResults.aspx

Hope this helps :)

Fiona59 · Jun 2, 2011

It's better but not great. Mostly casual lines.

You've got to remember that the Stelmach government promised to hire 70% of this year's new grad nurses. So those are a lot of promises and jobs to offer to the new grads of Alberta.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2011

Yeah...that 70 percent "promise"....heard a similar story when I was in ON, which was a blatant lie. Many of the new grads were and are jobless. A few of us moved to AB. Still isn't great anywhere in Canada. I wonder how long it will take until we really start to see a turn for the better? It's been three years of this.

jordanl · Jun 19, 2011

I live in Grande Prairie, AB which is about 4.5 hours north of Edmonton. Currently this week alone we have posted another 18 nursing jobs for our local hospital. Our area is STARVING for nurses, new grads have jobs lined up before they are even done school.

Fiona59 · Jun 19, 2011

I live in Grande Prairie, AB which is about 4.5 hours north of Edmonton. Currently this week alone we have posted another 18 nursing jobs for our local hospital. Our area is STARVING for nurses, new grads have jobs lined up before they are even done school.

But the reality is most people, unless they have ties, just don't want to work in small, northern towns. Unless they get the Northern Living Allowance.

jordanl · Jun 19, 2011

But the reality is most people, unless they have ties, just don't want to work in small, northern towns. Unless they get the Northern Living Allowance.

Which they do, and Grande Prairie is 60 000 people, its not a tiny little town. As for weather - its the exact same as Edmonton and we have had better weather than southern AB has all year.

Fiona59 · Jun 20, 2011

60K population is small when compared to Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, etc. Not everyone wants to live there.

The vacancies are there but internal, casual, and temporary make up a large part of the current vacancies.

http://www.healthjobs.ab.ca/SearchResults.aspx

IENs make land up there to get Canadian experience but they migrate to larger, urban areas when they get the chance.

Spouses want to work and not everyone is fortunate enough to have a spouse that can find work in a smaller job market.

jordanl · Jun 20, 2011

60K population is small when compared to Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, etc. Not everyone wants to live there.
The vacancies are there but internal, casual, and temporary make up a large part of the current vacancies.
http://www.healthjobs.ab.ca/SearchResults.aspx
IENs make land up there to get Canadian experience but they migrate to larger, urban areas when they get the chance.
Spouses want to work and not everyone is fortunate enough to have a spouse that can find work in a smaller job market.

I never said everyone wants to live there, not everyone wants to live in a huge center either, the OP asked where the jobs were and where people worked, so I gave that information. I'm not sure why you feel the need to argue with me over nothing. As for there being no jobs for spouses, obviously you have never been in this area as not only nurses are in demand, all jobs are. Thanks for the comments.

27400 · Jun 21, 2011

I'm looking for jobs myself. There are job openings in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), albeit they're mostly part-time positions (and a few permanent full-time). There is actually little to no casual positions available where I live. I believe, from some friends I've spoken with, most part timers get full time hours just not the benefits. I'm sure you'll have better luck than myself considering you have experience. My friend got a job in a smaller city (f/t) south west of Toronto and the hospital gave her three unit choices to work in. There are jobs, you just have to keep looking. My strategy right now is look into individual hospital website and look at their job postings. That's only if you want to move to Ontario, I don't know how they do it in other provinces/territories.

vwbeetle · Jul 1, 2011

Hello everyone,

I just registered to allnurses, and I'll be starting my nursing school this fall. I've been reading this forum for several months, and although I'm not yet an RN, I decided to join the community. Anyhow, I'm in Quebec province, and there seems to be a huge nursing shortage; at least that's what I've been hearing from the ones who just graduated. In their last yr of school, they called hospitals and the HR would ask them "Which dpt would you like to work, part-time/full-time?" Each schools I've called, they are proud to tell me that it's really 100% guaranteed upon graduating. So when I asked one of the newly grad, "Each year, they hire so many newly grad...I mean, it's not like hospitals are balloons...do they all go elsewhere or do they quit or do they get replaced by newly grad?? According to a number of people, the Quebec RNs get paid the lowest out of Canada. Therefore, a lot of them gain their experience here and they move out to Ontario or elsewhere; oh, also, a lot of Quebec nurses go work in the Northern Canada or even to the States.

So, I'm actually a little confused, because in Quebec, they appear to be sooo desperately short of nurses, and a lot of hospitals are recruiting nurses throughout the year; then I read messages in this forum and there seems to be no nursing shortage in Canada nor in US.

I, myself, am a little concerned, too, since I'm also going back to school to pursue Nursing, as a 2nd career. I really hope that I won't be unemployed upon finishing my Nursing program.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Jul 1, 2011

It's true... Quebec's nurses are paid the least of any nurses in Canada. In fact, their top echelon is paid less than grad nurses in at least 2 other provinces and their wage ladder has 12 steps, the most of any province... Their benefits package is not as attractive as most other provinces'. They also have some of the most difficult working environments due to high nurse-to-patient ratios. These are the reasons for the extreme nursing shortage in Quebec, and the reasons that Quebec is aggressively recruiting overseas. Countries that educate nurses for export are targeted. The number of Filipino nurses expressing an interest in going to Quebec (because the rest of Canada isn't hiring right now so Quebec will do! "But do I have to learn French??") has burgeoned in the last two months. What I see happening with that is that by the time they've got to pass the language exam or leave the province, they'll be packing.