[EXCERPT]
“Hiring difficulties is curtailing economic growth,” Ken Peacock, chief economist of the Business Council of B.C., told BIV on Tuesday.
“But ultimately what's going to happen is wages are going to be pushed up.”
He said wage growth across the province is up about 5 per cent year over year.
“Employers are going to continue to work to retain and attract employees, and they're going to be devoting more resources and efforts to try to attract the right employees. All this adds to costs, of course,” Peacock said.
“The reality, however, is much of this labour market tightness is going to unwind over the next year, year-and-a-half as the economy slows. The big question mark, though, is to what extent are employers going to be kind of reluctant to lay people off in the downturn, just because of the shortages and difficulty hiring workers … fresh in their minds.”
