Ottawa–The Canadian Dental Hygienists Association (CDHA) released the National Dental Hygiene Job market and Employment Survey. Topics covered include education, employment conditions, occupational health issues, future career interests among others.
Responses indicate that
736 of the dental hygienists (15%) had a dental assisting certificate upon entry to dental hygiene education, with the majority having a broader range of credentials. There were 361 bachelor degrees reported by the 3,151 respondents.
The average hourly wage reported across all positions held as employees was $36.47 per hour, which is lower than the average $39.00 per hour wage reported in the 2006 study. The lowest wages were $ 27.08 reported for Qubec jobs, being approximately half the Alberta rate of pay. The high participation of Qubec dental hygienists, compared to previous years, caused the lower overall reported average hourly wage in this study.
While 66% of respondents indicated that they had only one workplace, there were 13% who had reported having two jobs, and the remaining 21% held a variety of jobs. While there were 20% of dental hygienists responded that they were seeking more hours of work, 75% of respondents are satisfied with their number or work hours. However, in the 2006 study 6% of respondents were seeking more hours and 86% were satisfied with the number of work hours.
A large number of dental hygienists representing 44% indicated they have searched for new employment in dental hygiene in the past two years. In the 2006 survey there were 31% of respondents who had searched for employment in the two years previous to the survey.
