At the beginning of February, the mother of online recruitment, Monster Worldwide announced the creation of the Monster employment index in Canada, an indicator of the online workforce demand in Canada. Rikke Wivel, Director of Communications at Monster.ca explains what it’s about.
Can you briefly explain what the Monster employment index in Canada is?
The Monster employment index is based on millions of online job offers compiled on the Monster Canada website (www.monster.ca) as well as other Internet recruitment sites considered representative of employer activities on a national scale.
How is this index calculated?
Monster uses the same methodology for all its indexes. It is a methodology which has been proved and which makes correlations with other job market indicators. The Canadian Monster employment index measures employer demand for workers every month by counting and analyzing the number of online job offers diffused by recruitment sites considered representative of employer activities on a national scale.
When will it go public?
The first evaluation of the index was revealed on February 2 and henceforth will be published every third Thursday of the month. Thus the data from the January 2006 Canadian Monster employment index was published February 16.
How is this index positioned in relation to public data? Is it complimentary?
Canada Statistics give information, in the context of its survey of the working population, on movements within the job market after they have occurred. Information doesn’t appear until it is confirmed. By analyzing online job postings, we also get an indicator of postings to come. In this sense, the Monster employment index in Canada fills in the other indicators and provides more information to market observers.
Do you hope to have as much success with the Monster employment index in Canada as with its American counterpart launched in 2004?
Up until now, the Monster employment index seems to encounter the same success in Canada as in the United States and Europe. However, due to the absence of an indicator of workforce demand in Canada, we expect that the impact will be even greater here.
How do you see the cohabitation with the Jobboom index in Quebec?
We share the principal that each tool which provides supplementary information on the Canadian job market constitutes a bonus for industry observers. The Jobboom index is based on Canada Statistics data whereas the Monster employment index is the only indictor of workforce demand in Canada by online employers. In fact, in April 2004, Canada Statistics stopped the publication of its studies on workforce demand, studies which were based on offers appearing in printed media.