Hay Group releases Canadian salary forecasts for 2010

Online, September 2, 2009 (Newswire.com) - (Toronto, September 2, 2009) - Hay Group's national projections for 2010 Canadian salary adjustments have decreased substantially from a year ago.

Planned Increases for 2010
The results from a recent Hay Group survey of Canadian employers indicate a national average salary increase of 2.3% in 2010, which is much lower than the 2009 forecast of 3.7% from last year's survey. This year's 2.3% forecast, however, is identical to the 2.3% average actual salary change that organizations realized in 2009. The 2010 forecast and the actual adjustments of 2009 obviously reflect the impact of the recent economic downturn.

Almost 500 Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors provided details of their planned salary adjustments for 2010. Participants include many of Canada's leading employers.

"Over the past year, we've continued to experience symptoms of an overall weaker economic outlook, which last year was partially offset by the buoyancy of the energy sector in Alberta. The 2010 forecasts, however, do not include that energy sector optimism, and as a result, the forecasts are noticeably lower than those of last year", comments Karl Aboud, Director of the Hay Group Reward Consulting Practice.

One of the most noticeable observations in this year's survey is that 15% of our respondents are forecasting an actual salary freeze for 2010, compared with only 2% that forecast a freeze one year ago. In fact, the 2.3% salary forecast increases to 2.9% without accounting for the zero percent observations.

Another noticeable observation is that while Saskatchewan (at 3.8%) repeats as the province with the highest forecast, it is Newfoundland (at 3.5%) and Manitoba (at 3.0%) that have replaced Alberta (at 2.6%) as the next highest ranked provinces. The forecast for Quebec (at 2.5%) is slightly above the national average, while Ontario (at 2.1%) and B.C. (at 1.9%) are the only provinces with forecasts below the national average of 2.3%.

All provincial forecasts have decreased from a year ago, with the largest drop shown in Alberta (at -2.3 percentage points) and B.C. (at -1.8% points).

Mining (at 3.7%) is the sector projecting the highest average salary increase followed by Utilities (at 3.2%) and Credit Unions, Hospitality and Pharmaceutical (all at 3.0%). The three sectors with the lowest projections for 2010 are Media (at 0.9%), Forestry & Paper (at 1.0%) and Telecommunications (at 1.4%).

Details of the survey results will be released at a series of Hay Group breakfast briefings being held in major cities across Canada in September.

Hay Group is a global management consulting firm that works with leaders to transform strategy into reality and to help people and organizations realize their potential. Visit www.haygroup.com/ca

For further details, please contact:
Karl Aboud, Hay Group, 416.815.6410, or e-mail [email protected] OR
Anne Heber, Hay Group, 416.815.6450, or e-mail [email protected]