SREDA industry survey.

The Saskatoon Region Industry Report 2005 summarizes annual survey information regarding the availability of both skilled and unskilled labour, employee skill level, work ethic, labour management relations, sales and prospects for growth in the Saskatoon region. Almost 800 companies were included in this year's survey, with a response rate of 37.1%. Highlights from this year's survey include:

Sales were up or steady according to the majority of survey respondents.

In 2005, 63.1% of all respondents reported their sales were up over the previous year, 29.6% indicated that business was steady, and 7.3% reported a decline. This is an improvement over 2004 when 49.8% of industrial managers surveyed indicated their sales were up, 37.9% steady, and 12.3% experienced a decline.

Industrial managers are highly satisfied with their employees' work ethic, skill level and labour management relations.

In 2005, 96% of managers rated labour management relations as being either good or excellent, while 91.3% rated their employees' work ethic as being either good or excellent, and 89.5% found employee skill level for assigned jobs to be good or excellent.

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The availability of both skilled and unskilled labour has declined in the past year.

In 2005, 42% of industrial managers rated the availability of skilled workers as being either good or excellent, compared to 51% in 2004. The availability of unskilled labour was rated either good or excellent by 64.7% of respondents in 2005 compared to 71.6% in 2004.

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Industrial managers continue to express a high degree of optimism about their potential for future growth.

The majority of companies surveyed were optimistic about their future prospects. In 2005, 88.7% of all respondents felt that their prospects were either excellent or good compared to 82.2% in 2004. In 2005, 9.1% reported prospects as fair and 2.2% as poor.

This annual survey provides valuable insight into the trends and activities of the labour market in the Saskatoon region. A complete copy of the Saskatoon Region Industry Report 2005 is available on the SREDA Web site at www.sreda.com.

Comparison of Companies' Sales Data 2003-2005

        2003  2004  2005

Up       45%   50%   63%
Steady   37%   38%   30%
Down     18%   12%    7%

note: Table made from bar graph.

Prospects for Increased Business 2003-2005

           2003  2004  2005

Excellent   23%   29%   38%
Good        45%   53%   51%
Fair        26%   16%    9%
Poor         6%    2%    2%

Note: Table made from bar graph.