Canadian Labour Market Survey - September Surprise Data!

Finally, Statistics Canada reports believable numbers suggesting that employment was relatively unchanged in September.  The unemployment rate dipped under 7% as fewer youth searched for work.   

Shockingly, the numbers bureau reported a decline in youth job seekers during September when students returned to university and college.  So much for seasonal adjustments but common sense prevails over their typical strange revelations. 

In recent months, Statistics Canada’s has portrayed a roller coaster of economic ups and downs.  The wonky monthly data has proven to be unreliable and inaccurate. It is important to note that the Canadian Labour Market Survey is just that… a “Survey”. The monthly report is not intended to be a fact but that doesn't stop money traders and stock brokers from overreacting to the numbers, It's best to just stand back and observe the silliness.

Unemployment Rate

 

If the economy was really as volatile as the numbers suggest, we would all be in a persistent state of anxiety. The agency reported 11,000 jobs created in September, with 59,000 created in August, job losses in July and a massive 95,000 jobs gained in June.   

Employment and staffing industry professionals know there are far more reliable sources of information than the Statistics Canada Ouija Board Report.  For starters, the Canadian Staffing Index produced by ACSESS (Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services) is the largest Canadian sample of actual hours worked and should be viewed as one of the more reliable job indicators.  

According to StatsCan, Canadians gained 212,000 since last September, representing an increase of 1.2%. The number of workers in the job market also grew a similar pace.   Disappointingly, job creation continues to grow faster in part-time employment than full time.  

From the ACSESS website, “The Canadian Staffing Index was 113 in August. The index was unchanged from August a year ago, when the index was also 113.”    The Canadian Staffing Index is based upon actual hours worked for a significantly large sampling of temporary staffing providers in Canada. It is based upon the number of billed hours and is not seasonally adjusted.
  
"The August value of 113 is unchanged from a year ago, which implies flat or slightly positive growth in demand given that there was one fewer working day this August compared to a year ago. For most of 2013, the index has shown a trend of very minimal year-over-year growth in overall demand," says Timothy Landhuis, Research Analyst at Staffing Industry Analysts.

It will be interesting to see how the markets react to the ho-hum information.  My advice continues to be “Buy low, sell high and don’t read too much into the Statistics Canada Ouija Board report on the Labour Market”.

Facebook #Hashtag Tips for Marketers

Giving credit where credit is due, this breaking news on facebook hashtags is courtesy of #Hubspot, a great source for social media marketing tools and an impressive library full of social media white paper content.   Now on to the breaking news at facebook.

A real concern from facebook users and marketers has always been the limitations when  promoting, researching or engaging in a broader discussion beyond your network of personal friends or paid advertisers.

  "there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what's happening or what people are talking about."

Taking a page from the hashtag founders at twitter and other social media hashtag followers such as   Pinterest, Instagram, and TumblrPosters; facebook users will soon be able to add a #hashtag to their content too. Clicking hashtags in facebook will display a filtered feed of what others are saying about the same topic. 

So, for those of us in the recruitment and staffing space, it will make sense to always insert #job within every facebook job posting and another hashtag that includes the job title or industry like #nurse, #PSW, #OT, #RN, or #hospital.   I encourage you to research and find "retweeters" in your neck of the woods.  For example @Toronto_Rt will automatically retweet anything that contains #Toronto to their 4800 local market follows.  Hopefully, retweeters will evolve and extend their services to include facebook #hashtags too. 

Here are a few tips courtesy of Hubspot.  

Facebook Hashtag Tips for Marketers

1. When creating a brand new hashtag, make sure the hashtag is original and not already in use by someone else.
2. Incorporate industry or branded keywords.
3. Be careful about sentiments. Remember the McDonald's hashtag fiasco?
4. Promote the hashtag by incorporating it into other marketing channels like email, landing pages, other social networks, etc.
5. Don't hijack popular hashtags that aren't relevant to your content. It's spammy, like in this example (see #8). 
6. Keep it short. While you don't really have to worry about character count on Facebook, you do if you're using the same hashtag on a site like Twitter where you do need to consider character limitations.
7. Make sure your hashtagged posts are public. I'm not sure why you wouldn't be making your marketing posts public anyway, but yeah, don't overlook this.
8. Incorporate hashtags into your Facebook ads!

Currently, hashtags are available only to a small percentage of people and pages on Facebook, but Facebook indicates it will roll them out more comprehensively in the coming weeks.

Here is a link to the rest of the #hubspot article.  http://blog.hubspot.com/facebook-launches-clickable-hashtags .

If you require assistance with your social recruitment strategy contact Steve Jones steve@stevejonesLeadership.com 

Get that Job! - 3 Interview Tips (for everyone)

Confidence, preparation and presentation are all keys to winning the big prize. Here are a few insider tips about what employers really want from an interview.

Tip #1 - Context - Be a Story Teller

Most people asking the questions are very knowledgeable of their company and the job but they are not always experienced with conducting professional interviews. You may be asked questions that only prompt a YES or NO response. Be prepared to help the interviewer by telling stories that support your short answers. It's the context of your stories that will stick in the interviewers mind and give you the advantage over other candidates. Every story should have three parts 1) Context – Tell a story that is relevant to the interviewer’s question and the job that you are applying for; 2) Action – Describe what actions you took; 3) Result – Describe the impact or result of your actions.

Tip #2 - Ask the Right Questions
Employers can tell a lot about you from the questions you ask. For example, if you only ask questions about the company benefit plan then the employer may assume that it's the benefits rather than the job that really interests you. Ask questions about what the employer wants to accomplish or improve. Ask about the boss's priorities, goals and objectives. By asking questions about results then the interviewer will assume you are a results oriented person. Results - That's what they really want!

Tip #3 - Dress (better than) the Part

You will only have one chance to create a first impression. The first minute will subconsciously influence whether the interviewer will ask questions that funnel you into the job or filter you out. Arrive at your interview dressed to immediately influence the interviewer to believe that you are the one. Whatever the dress code is for the job, go to the interview dressed a little better than that.

The Close - An interview is a sales call where you are selling yourself. All great sales people know that you must ask for the order to close the deal. Don't leave without asking your closing questions. "Will you offer this job to me?"; "Is there a date that you would like me to start?"; "What can I do that will help make this decision easy for you?"; "Can we schedule the appointment for the next stage in the process?" If you don't ask - you don't get.
___________________________________________________________

Steve Jones (CPC) has 29 years of staffing industry experience and delivers CPC courses for the staffing industry Ethics and Business Practices certification module and Staffing Industry Legal Practices certification module.

Connect with Steve Jones on Linkedin: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stevejonesdg
Follow Steve Jones on twitter: https://twitter.com/Jones4staffing 

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.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information regarding the Canadian Staffing Index contact:

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

www.acsess.org

Canadian Staffing Index: A Leading Indicator of Economic Recovery

The Canadian employment rate is heading in the right direction and temporary staffing is leading the way!

Last week, the Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services (ACSESS), in conjunction with independent research firm Staffing Industry Analysts, released a new groundbreaking monthly index that tracks temporary employment across Canada. The Canadian Staffing Index reported consistent job growth for several months as far back as May 2009. Statistics Canada then followed with the news that 25,000 Canadian jobs were created during the month of February 2010.

It’s a well known fact that Statistics Canada’s job creation numbers are a lagging indicator of the economy, however, it is believed that the new Canadian Staffing Index, which measures temporary help hours, will provide a real-time barometer of employment activity and a reliable leading indicator of near-future full-time job creation.

The March 12, 2010, the Labour Force Survey produced by Statistics Canada says that “employment has been on an upward trend since July 2009 (+159,000 jobs),” and that “this contrasts with the sharp drop of 417,000 between the peak in October 2008 and July 2009.”
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/labour-travail/lfs-epa/lfs-epa-eng.pdf)

In comparison, the Canadian Staffing Index shows that temporary employment hours were on an upward trend three months ahead of the more traditional Labour Force and Unemployment data.(http://www.acsess.org/NEWS/IndustryPress-Feb8-2010.asp)

It’s interesting to note that the lagging Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey and the current Canadian Staffing Index both confirm that employment peaked in October of 2008. Had the Staffing Index been in place at that time, the decline in temporary personnel hours may have provided an ominous foreboding of the devastating job losses that ultimately followed. It only makes sense considering that temporary workers are typically the first to be cut back in slow periods and the first to return in a recovery.

Temporary staffing is primarily used by business managers to hedge against the uncertainties and fluctuations in the economy. Other research data shows that temporary employment will often transition to regular full-time employment when the work requirements become more consistent and predictable.

The Canadian Staffing Industry Index is a reliable tool for business managers, economists and governments in their development of policy and decision making. The names of the actual survey participants and the individual companies’ data is kept confidential, administered by an independent research firm, Staffing Industry Analysts, but we know that no other survey of its type with such an extraordinarily high percentage of the total market share has ever been collected or reported on in Canada.

All of our companies within Design Group Staffing Inc., including The People Bank, Placement Group, Design Group Technical Staffing, Allen Professional Search, INTEQNA, Aimco Industrial Staffing, The Medical Recruitment Network and La Banque de Personnel participate in the submission of confidential and timely data. When our data is combined with the other respondents’ data, the survey provides trends and hours worked by over 30,000 employees. Now that’s a sample size to be reckoned with!

We will continue to deliver future Canadian Staffing Index results through future editions of the Staffing Insider. The way things are going, we predict that the next Canadian Staffing Index will verify that there is more job growth in the current month. That’s because we are busy…so you will be, too.

This article was written by Steve Jones and published during the week of March 15, 2010 in the Staffing Insider, a regular email broadcast produced by The People Bank, Aimco, Allen Professional Search, La Banque de Personnel and the Medical Recruitment Network.

Subscribe to the Staffing Insider Newsletter