Canadian employers more optimistic about hiring this year
According to CareerBuilder Canada’s annual job forecast, more Canadian employers plan on hiring in 2010 compared to last year, with 29% of the study’s 255 respondents saying they planned to hire full-time employees, vs. 18% in 2009. Likewise, 18% said they planned to hire part-time employees, up from 13% last year. Employers are proceeding with caution when it comes to salary increases, however, with 50% saying they would raise compensation in the next three months, compared to 69% in 2009.
Among the hiring trends for 2010 are replacing low-performing workers with A-players, flexible work arrangements (43% of respondents) and rehiring workers laid off over the past 12 months (29% of respondents).
$50 million to help newcomers integrate into the job market
In early January, the Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas) and Member of Parliament for Thornhill, announced the implementation of a project to make the integration of newcomers into the Canadian workforce easier. As part of Canada's Economic Action Plan, the Government is investing $50 million over two years to improve the assessment and recognition of foreign qualifications and credentials. The investment will develop standards for the timely handing of requests, identify key occupations that will be the priority for developing recognition standards, and help people who want to come to Canada launch the assessment process before they get here. To do this, a set of online tools will allow them to access information on language training, the labour market, mentoring, and how to find a job.
Two Canadians among the Top 50 CEOs in the world
Two Canadian CEOs made the ranks of the best-performing CEOs in the world, according to the Harvard Business Review international ranking: William Doyle, CEO of PotashCorp, in 14th place, and John Lau, CEO of Husky Energy, in 30th place. The two stood out for market capitalization of $24 billion and $21 billion respectively.
Career awareness initiative in Toronto
According to the Workplace Bulletin, which is issued by the Labour Program twice a month, a career awareness and development initiative has been introduced by the City of Toronto and the Canadian Union of Public Employees on behalf of the City’s 5,800 outside employees. Since January 1, 2010, a trial initiative has provided career awareness opportunities for employees, youth and individuals from the City of Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods. The initiative will support permanent employees who have a desire to develop leadership and communication skills with opportunities to work in other workplaces. It will also provide members of the community with exposure to the workplace to help them develop the behaviours required for a successful entry into the labour market.
Linux.com launches its own job board
The increasing use of Linux in companies and the strong demand for experienced resources have pushed the Linux Foundation to create the Linux Jobs Board. For now, the site only covers the U.S. and Canada, and allows employers to post ads at a base rate of $99 for 15 days. Employers can post on both the Linux Jobs Board and the Job Thread Network at once; the latter groups together 50 niche publishing sites with more than 9.8 million unique visitors each month, at a rate of 49¢ per ad consulted. For now, ads for jobs in Canada are scarce.
New Brunswick minimum wage to increase
In early January, the New Brunswick government announced the implementation of a plan to gradually increase the province’s minimum wage to $10/hour on September 1, 2011. The first increase is slated for April 1, when it will increase by 25¢ to $8.50/hour. Other increases of 50¢ are planned for September 1, 2010, April 1, 2011, and September 1, 2011. The minimum wage in Canada varies from $8/hour in British Columbia to $10/hour in Nunavut.
Towers Watson is born
On January 3, Towers Watson & Co. announced the finalization of the merger between Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt. Towers Watson specializes in people, risk and financial management, and offers solutions in the areas of employee benefits, talent management, rewards, and risk and capital management. It has 14,000 associates worldwide.
CCL funding not renewed
The Canadian government has decided to stop funding the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) starting March 31, 2010. The CCL, whose mission is to provide Canadians with information about learning at all stages of their life, considers that this decision will greatly hinder its functioning. The organization’s President and CEO, Paul Cappon, has said that a variety of options are being considered for CCL to continue its work, even if it must greatly scale down its activities.
Canadians not updating their resumes
According to an Angus Reid Public Opinion survey developed by Robert Half International, a staffing firm specializing in accounting and finance, 44% of Canadians have not updated their resumes in over a year. Of the 367 Canadian adults who are employed in an office environment surveyed in November 2009, 16% had updated their resume within the last month, 18% within the last three months, and 12% within the last six months. Despite this, most respondents (73%) said they felt ready to conduct a job search if they lost their jobs tomorrow.
89% of job seekers worldwide ready to change fields
According to a Monster Global Poll published in late December 2009, 89% of job seekers worldwide would consider a career change in order to find work. The poll of 22,444 visitors to its sites across Europe, the U.S. and Canada was carried out between July 20 and August 10 of last year. To the authors, this result indicates soul-searching and adaptive behaviour by job seekers to find land a job. Nevertheless, U.S. workers were the least likely to seek a career change: 14% of them refused to consider this possibility, vs. 11% globally. Austrian and Swiss workers were the most willing to do so, with 69% and 67% of them respectively entertaining this possibility.
And the best employer in Canada is…
According to the annual ranking by Hewitt & Associates, in collaboration with the Globe and Mail and La Presse, construction and engineering firm PCL Constructors was the best Canadian employer on the 2010 list. Ranked second in 2009, PCL switched places with another construction industry firm, EllisDon, which ranked first last year. Computer firm Cisco Canada entered the list in 3rd place, while law firm Bennett Jones slipped down one to 4thplace. Engineering firm CIMA+ maintained its 5th place, followed by WestJet Airlines, cigarette manufacturer JTI-Macdonald, Biomedical Laboratories, financial services firm Farm Credit Canada and brokerage Edward Jones, which dropped down five places to 10th.
The ranking was established by surveying more than 100,000 employees in 134 participating Canadian firms on the quality of their relations with their employer.