VANCOUVER -- The number of job opportunities has rebounded since the 2008 global recession, but British Columbia’s university graduates can still expect a tight labour market and lower salaries once they leave school, according to career experts.

“We do see that it is getting more competitive for students to try and get the good jobs,” said Kirk Hill, assistant dean of external relations at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business.

The local experience is in keeping with a newly released national report that found Canada’s employment market has not only stalled in recent months, but the overall quality of jobs that exist has also deteriorated.

CIBC World Markets says in the report that when one considers certain factors — such as trends in full-time employment versus part-time employment, how much of the job market is moving to self-employment and how well compensated new full-time jobs are — the state of affairs is worse than it was a year ago.

By province, B.C. and Ontario suffered the largest drop in the number of high-quality jobs generated in 2011, while Alberta saw the fastest growth.

With both quality and quantity of employment falling in tandem, Benjamin Tal, CIBC World Markets’ deputy chief economist and report author, said it’s no surprise that real disposable income remained unchanged in the first three quarters of 2011 — the worst showing in 15 years.

“Income in this country is not rising,” Tal said.

The CIBC report found self-employment grew by two per cent last year, double the pace of paid employment.

“From a quality perspective, the surge in self-employment reduces the overall quality of employment, largely due to the fact that, on average, a self-employed person earns 10 per cent to 15 per cent less than a regular employee,” Tal said.

He also said growth of full-time jobs considered “high-paying” was only 0.4 per cent last year, which was a quarter the rate of growth in “low-paying” full-time jobs. He said this is because of growth in low-paying sectors such as accommodation, restaurants and personal care, and declines in high-paying sectors such as chemical and high-tech manufacturing, public administration and mining.

Tal said full-time employment grew 1.5 per cent last year and part-time jobs were down 0.3 per cent, which was the one area of his employment-quality assessment that was positive.

“Whenever we look at job numbers, we have to look at the quality of the job, because it is as important. You get a job as a CEO, and I get a job in fast-food restaurant. Basically, these are [counted as] two jobs, but of course they are not,” he said.

Hill said SFU has seen job postings for graduating students decline by about 10 per cent over the past year. But, he added, that figure is still well up from 2008 when opportunities for graduates dipped an estimated 30 per cent.

“It’s slow, but it’s not that bad,” he said of the current hiring atmosphere.

Hill said the biggest trend he’s seen over the past five years is the number of students going into business for themselves. However, he disagreed with Tal’s suggestion that the move to self-employment was in reaction to a lack of quality jobs. Rather, it has to do with a generational shift toward web-based entrepreneurship and social innovation.

“People (are) looking for things that are going to make a difference to community or society. Instead of donating money, it’s really about how do we create enterprise that helps communities,” he said.

Kimberley Rawes, a career educator at the University of B.C., said recent graduates are finding satisfying work in accordance with their skills, interests and education.

But salaries for many entry-level jobs have adjusted downward over the past three years.

In 2008, a software developer with a computer science or engineering degree could expect to start at between $50,000 to $80,000 a year, Rawes said. Today, the same positions are paid on average $38,000 to $55,000.

“That number also holds for a lot of other industries,” Rawes said of the latter salary range.

Hill said the average entry-level salary for a business undergraduate is $43,000 a year. Computer science and engineering graduates can expect to earn more than that, while those graduating from a liberal arts program will, on average, earn less.

dahansen@vancouversun.com