By Alicia Koch
Citizen Staff

A Windthorst business operator who has been looking to fill a vacant position since last spring.

A Kipling repair shop, which has been shorthanded since October. Retail establishment with job openings for the past month, five months and more.

Gas stations, coffee shops and pig barns are all having similar problem, in spite of the fact that more people are moving to this area, as the rural Saskatchewan economy gets stronger.

So, why a shortage of employees?

Of those we recently surveyed, most agreed that the retail and service sector just can’t compare with the attractive wages and what one called “inflated salaries” offered in the oil patch.

A Kennedy-Langbank are employer, who has been searching for staff for an extended period of time, and had had to raise offers by 20% to get any interest at all from prospective workers, worries that business will eventually be reducing services and staff to make ends meet.

“This will hurt the community. I think that our younger people have expectations of salaries beyond the capabilities of a lot of places in this area.”

Most retailers surveyed agreed that the prospect of higher pay in other sectors puts them at a disadvantage.

For others, though, it is the demand for skilled tradespeople that hampers their recruitment efforts.

An employer at a shop in Windthorst says his opinion on the situation is that people are not choosing to go into that trade, or other trades for that matter. However, he remains optimistic.

So, what does the future hold? Well, with the predictions of a considerable economic upswing in rural Saskatchewan, it seems likely that the retail and service sectors will have to continue to compete with the oil patch along with construction and building trade to attract workers for the foreseeable future.