Saskatoon Real Estate

As opposed to in the past when brain drain was a very common occurrence with nurses in Saskatchewan, recent studies of graduates are now showing that degree-earning nurses in Saskatchewan are getting jobs that they are happy with and staying in Saskatchewan. Lorna Butler, Dean of the College of Nursing at the U of S states that “We are graduating nurses who are loyal to the province and happy to serve the people of Saskatchewan” in a news release on Tuesday.

The Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan (NEPS) is a program that gathers information from former students each year as well as those who graduated 2 and 5 years ago. The survey shows that 98.5% of graduates are employed 5 years after graduating and 85% receive job offers right before or right after graduating and 93.1% of 4-year degree students and 83.8% of accelerated degree grads stay in Saskatchewan after graduation from nursing college. Saskatchewan nursing graduates expressed 90.8%satisfaction with both their education and nursing as a career.

Even with all of the locally educated nurses staying in the province Saskatchewan still requires nurses from other countries such as the Phillipines. I have been lucky enough to help a couple of nurses from the Phillipines buy a house for sale in Saskatoon and hope to help more nurses from the Phillipines buy houses for sale in Saskatoon.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

By June 11th, 2009 the Better Business Bureau of Saskatchewan had already received hundreds of calls from concerned consumers about high pressure salespeople coming to their homes. I received an email from the owner of Reed Security in Saskatoon on Monday asking the recipients to warn any of their clients, friends, and family with alarm systems to beware. One of his clients was approached by a salesperson who worked for “Reed Security” while his client knew that this young man did not, he saw the sticker on his front door and lied. The salesperson was trying to get him to take the “Free Upgraded Alarm System” which would actually cost $45/month and it wasn’t even through the current supplier.

There are 3 company names being used, at least, but it is actually just 1 company out of the United States. In some cases they are even saying that they are members of the Better Business Bureau of Saskatchewan. These pitches have been going on for a few weeks and if a person says yes to the install, often times the systems are in within a couple of hours. The salespeople are very aggressive and can often be obnoxious and nasty by some accounts.

It is advisable to always get 3 quotes when it comes to anything in your home; from painting to carpet cleaning to alarm systems. Also be sure to check with the BBB before signing anything with any company to make sure that the company is registered in Saskatchewan or your local province.

I personally recommend locally owned alarm companies like Reed Security and when a client buys a house for sale in Saskatoon I give them a Reed Security brochure. So watch out for these high pressure sales people and trust who your friends and family and neighbours trust…don’t listen to these sales tactics if they tell you your neighbour “Frank” signed up…ask Frank first, don’t take the sales people’s words.

To read more on this visit this article.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.

March saw Canada lose 61300 jobs which means jobs are disappearing at rates not seen since the early 1980’s. For the first time in 7 years the unemployment rate is 8%. Since October’s peak we have seen employment fall each month for a total of 357000 jobs lost, which is 2.1% of the work force. During the 1991 recession the contraction was not as strong but it equals that of the 1982 slump, but it was the level that was expected in the budget and programs and money has been allocated to help deal with this problem (this refers to the budget’s $40 billion over 2 years stimulus plan)

The good news? March’s losses weren’t as bad as January and February when 129000 and 83000 jobs were lost respectively and March’s losses were what one would expect in the middle of a recession.

One of the problems though is that a lot of Canadians are falling through the cracks as EI mandates that 700 hours of accumulated work is needed to qualify for benefits, but under the current circumstances some are asking that that be cut in half says Erin Weir of the United Steelworkers. He also says that his previous experience with recessions that unemployment rates will continue to be up even after the Canadian economy starts to bounce back as employers hold off on hiring until the recovery is for real.

Last month BC lost 22600 and Alberta lost 14900 workers, whereas Ontario only lost 11000 (but they still lead the country in jobs lost with 171000 over 5 months)

One of the hardest hitting sectors is Canadian manufacturing with auto and forestry leading the way as they have let go 6.8% of their workforce. Construction has been hit with 99000 jobs lost since October and we see evidence of this in the Saskatoon new housing market as our new housing starts have declined drastically.

Canada’s unemployed number is now 1,456,600 with 16,838,100 still working. Youths 15-24 are at 14.8% unemployed, 7.5% of men 25+ are unemployed, in the same group women are at 5.7%.

Saskatchewan and Newfoundland were the only 2 provinces to stay the same from February to March at 4.7% and 7.4% respectively. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have the lowest unemployment rates with 4.7 and 5.1 respectively.

Out of the major cities the unemployment rate in Regina is the lowest at 3.9%, a close second goes to Quebec City and Saskatoon’s unemployment rate, #3, is also low at 4.8% with Winnipeg, Edmonton and Ottawa in 4th with 4.9%.

Windsor, Ontario has the highest unemployment rate at 13.7% followed by Kitchener, Ontario at 9.6% and Saguenay, Quebec at 9.3%.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.