Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Canadian Staffing Index - June 2011



“Although the Staffing Index remains below the pre-recession 100 level, it is continuing along an encouraging trajectory. On the ground, ACSESS members are reporting anecdotally that temporary assignments are lengthening, more employers are hiring permanent employees with the assistance of staffing companies, and there is a return to the traditional and predictable seasonal fluctuations in Temporary hours,” explained ACSESS President, Bryan Toffey, adding that, “These are all signs of stability and cautious optimism in the Canadian employment market.”
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The Canadian Staffing Index measures the hours of labour performed by a sampling of temporary and contract staffing in the staffing industry. The data collected is the largest sample size done in Canada provided by a number of Canadian staffing companies and accounts for approximately one third of total staffing industry sales. To preserve confidentiality the data is collected by Staffing Industry Analysts www.staffingindustry.com; an independent company specialized in staffing industry statistics. Data is available for the months starting July 2008 (the benchmark month) to the current month.

In review of similar Index research from the USA, many experts agree staffing industry employment data serves as an economic indicator. Historically, temporary employment improves as overtime hours increase and as unemployment claims decrease. This means the Index can provide a "near real time" indication of how the Canadian economy is performing.

"The Canadian Staffing Index demonstrates both the changes in the Canadian economy and the volatile nature of the staffing business. It is that ability to provide a flexible workforce that brings tremendous value to our clients."
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For more information regarding the Canadian Staffing Index contact:

Amanda Curtis, CAE
Executive Director, ACSESS
1-888-232-4962 / 905-826-6869

Friday, July 08, 2011

More Canadian Job Creation

Go Canada!

The Canadian Staffing Index produced by Acsess (Association of Canadian Search, Employment & Staffing Services) has consistently given us a two to three month leading indicator on job creation.

28,000 Canadian Jobs created in Canada is considered to be a moderate by meaningful number of new jobs indicating that we are still improving. Its my impression over the years that the Statistics Canada employment numbers are not always spot on but the aggregate sum of their employment data over any rolling three month period is probably pretty accurate. This is three consecutive months of reported gains. Woo Hoo!

It's nice to see Ontario's manufacturing continue recovering. Alberta is also making tremendous gains thanks to a strong resource commodity sector.

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