Prosperity in Alberta, Canada

Canada's Oil Boom Prompts Donut Shops to Use iPods to Fill Jobs

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The jobless rate in Alberta, Canada's biggest oil-producing province, is so low that donut shops are offering iPods and university scholarships to attract workers.

Caroline Barham, who owns six Tim Hortons donut franchises, is providing free transportation to her store in Canmore, a one- hour drive from her base in Calgary, Canada's oil capital. Applicants also have a chance to win a C$160 ($132) iPod Shuffle music player, and can apply for as much as C$1,500 in college scholarships.

``We're in competition with everyone for workers,'' said Barham, 50, as she tied yellow balloons to chairs in a restaurant offering walk-in interviews in Calgary. ``We're going to have to keep thinking outside of the box.''

Record oil prices have pushed Alberta's unemployment rate to 3.5 percent in May, the lowest in a quarter century and half the Canadian average. The decline has left companies scrambling to find waitresses, welders, engineers and accountants.

Americans are jumping at the chance

Tim Hortons, a unit of Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's International Inc., has run radio commercials that invite Albertans to walk in for interviews, the first time the 41-year- old company has targeted a hiring campaign to a specific region. Barham collected five new applications and did two interviews on Aug. 10, and was prepared to hire at least one applicant immediately.

Renee Nelson, 34, who moved to Canada from the U.S. in 2003 and holds a business degree from Marymount University, got an on- the-spot interview when she showed up.

``They said I was way overqualified, but I'm tired of working in offices,'' Nelson said. ``It may not pay well, but I want to be happy.''

Rising energy prices are fueling demand for workers in Alberta's oil sands, where tar-like crude is extracted from sand in the northern part of the province. Oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Imperial Oil unit and Suncor Energy Inc., expect to spend as much as C$45 billion during the next five years to boost production from Alberta's deposits, whose reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's.

Skilled workers are also needed

Anthony Franceschini, chief executive officer of Stantec Inc., an engineering and design firm in Edmonton, can't fill all of the vacant jobs at his company.

``The biggest challenge is still getting qualified people,'' Franceschini, 54, said. ``We work in 15 states and five provinces in Canada and Alberta right now is the best of all of those areas.''

Of the 300 job vacancies at Stantec, 25 percent are in Alberta, Franceschini said. The company employs about 4,500 people and needs engineers, architects and urban planners, he said. Stantec has boosted wages between 5 percent and 7 percent this year, compared with about 3 percent before the boom.

Average weekly earnings in Alberta rose 5.6 percent in May, compared with 2.9 percent nationally.

Calgary resident Ian Edgar knows how easy it is to find work. Returning from vacation last month, the 38-year-old Edgar sent his resume to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., a Montreal-based engineering company. Within two days, he had a job designing electrical systems for an oil project.