Since 2001, middle-class Americans have seen their pay drop by 4 percent, although labor productivity went up by 15 percent during the same period.
On average, B.C. and Alberta saw productivity gains worth $122,698 per net worker gained from migration. Provinces who lost population due to migration, however, saw average productivity gains of $82,955 per worker.
Alberta continues to lead all provinces in average weekly earnings despite a drop in May, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.Earnings for payroll workers, including overtime, hit $818, down from $825 in April but up 2.3 per cent over May, 2006.
Earnings are up 4.3 per cent so far this year, second only to the 5.1 per cent in Prince Edward Island, which has the country's lowest weekly rate at $635.
Ontario has the second highest earnings at $798, up from $796 in April, followed by B.C. at $750, down from $755 the previous month.
Average earnings for hourly paid employees edged up 14 cents in May to $19.04.
Last year's freakish growth disguised our falling productivity, said professor Ted Chambers of the Western Centre for Economic Research, University of Alberta. "Full-time employment rose by 7.6 per cent -- 114,000 jobs," he said.
If employment rose even faster than total output, then output-per-worker must have declined, Chambers explained.
"Provincial productivity numbers, released by Statistics Canada not long ago, showed Alberta at the bottom."
Productivity -- not GDP -- drives profits, incomes, and competitiveness.
Economy churns out 55,000 new jobs in March; unemployment holds at 6.1%
In the first quarter of the year, the agency estimated that employment grew by 158,000, the strongest first-quarter growth since 2002.
The booming job market has also resulted in Canadians earning more. Hourly wages rose 2.4 per cent during the first three months of this year, compared with last year, well in excess of the 1.6 per cent inflation rate.
Alberta's booming economy was mostly responsible for higher wages, rising 5.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, from the same period in 2006.
The rise in March employment was led by women aged 25 years and older as adult women reached a new high in workforce participation at 59 per cent. In March, women in this age group captured over 39,000 of the new jobs created.
Over the past 12 months, adult women more than doubled their male counterparts in finding new jobs. Women over 55 also reached record levels of participation in the workforce, at 25.8 per cent.
By sector, employment growth in the services sector grew by 66,000 jobs in March, more than making up for the continuing weakness in Canada's beleaguered manufacturing.
Employment in trade grew by 27,000, with Alberta registering almost half the gains. The agency said the strength in this sector in March reflects gains in wholesale trade as a result of increased activity following February's CN strike.
Canada's labour force participation, the proportion of adult Canadians that have jobs or are actively looking for one, has jumped 0.6 per cent since last October and now stands at 67.7 per cent.
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BMO's stock market performance has lagged rivals in the past year, as revenue stalled and costs rose. In contrast, CIBC stock soared in part because of newly-named CEO Gerry McCaughey's took layers of management out of the organization, trimming 950 jobs and cutting expenses by more than $250-million a year.
RBC, another stock market leader, took a $192-million charge in 2004 when CEO Gordon Nixon reworked the way the bank was run and shed 1,600 head office jobs.
Analysts also said the cuts show that in the future, the Canadian banks face increasing challenges as they try to sustain double-digit profit growth. BMO's earnings grew 11-per-cent last year, to a record $2.7-billion.
