Reuters released their preview for StatsCan's March Employment Report

This Friday, Statistics Canada will release the Employment Report for the month of March and Canada is waiting for it with optimism. February's report, while showing growth wasn't as strong as some hoped, but March should bring us back to the strong growth we've seen over the past 12 months.

Reuters has released their forecast for the report, indicating they see Canada creating 26,000 new jobs in March and possibly lowering the unemployment rate to 7.7%.

They go on to say that Canada has created an average of roughly 40,000 new jobs every month for the past 5 months.

They also note the impact this report will have on the federal election, considering the importance of unemployment to any political platform.

The article can be viewed in full here or enclosed in this article.

PREVIEW-UPDATE 1-Canada seen creating 26,500 jobs in March

 WHAT: Canadian March employment report

 WHEN: Friday, April 8 at 7 a.m. (1100 GMT)

 REUTERS FORECAST (preliminary):

 ECONCA                    

                    March      F'cast range    Feb

 Jobs gain/loss     +26.5K    +11.4K to +40K  +15.1K

 Unemployment rate  7.7 pct    7.6 to 7.8 pct  7.8 pct

 FACTORS TO WATCH:

 Trend: The report will show whether job growth remained
lackluster for the second straight month or if there has been a
return to the more frenetic hiring pace of December and
January. The Canadian economy has created an average of 40,000
jobs per month for the past five months. But February's tepid
gain disappointed after two strong months, so markets will be
watching to see if the lull was temporary.

 During the economic recovery Canada has generally regained
lost jobs faster than the United States, but that trend may be
reversing as the neighboring economy outperformed Canada in
February and posted a second straight month of solid gains in
March. [ID:nNOAT00477]

 Growth: Economic growth picked up speed in the fourth
quarter of last year and early data show that momentum spilling
over into the first quarter of 2011, which should foster job
growth. [ID:nN31223177]

 Political fallout: Unemployment is a big theme in the
federal election campaign now in full swing ahead of a May 2
vote, especially in the hard-hit manufacturing belt in southern
Ontario, where the jobless rate was above the national average
in February at 8.0 percent.

 Wages: Annual wage inflation for permanent employees was
2.5 percent in February, up from 2.3 percent in January,
according to Statistics Canada's flagship employment survey.

 In a separate business census of non-farm payroll
employees, Statscan estimated a 4.2 percent advance in weekly
earnings in January from a year earlier.

 MARKET IMPACT

 The employment report is the last data point available to
the Bank of Canada ahead of its April 12 interest rate
announcement. While market players have effectively ruled out
the chances of a rate hike this month, strong job numbers could
convince investors to pull forward their forecasts on the
timing of the next rate hike.

 The Canadian dollar would likely get a boost from an upbeat
report, or slip from recent highs if the numbers disappoint.

 Canada's primary securities dealers, surveyed March 18,
were largely split between May 31 and July 19 as the date of
the central bank's next move, with one of the 11 betting on
April 12. [CA/POLL]

 Overnight index swaps, which trade based on expectations
for the key central bank rate, imply a fully priced-in rate
increase on the bank's Sept. 7 decision date. BOCWATCH
(Reporting by Louise Egan; editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)

New Jobs With CMS Management

The construction sector has always been a clear indicator to who the economy is doing and this is why we're pleased to announce new construction jobs. CMS has been tasked with new Project Management roles in Edmonton and Calgary.

If you'd like to apply for any of these jobs, please get in touch with us or click here to send us a resume.

If you'd like to be kept in the loop as we add more positions, , please follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Further proof that Canada's beating the recession - another drop in EI claims.

The EI Offices across Canada aren't nearly as busy as they were in the past few years. Proof of this can be found in StatsCan's newest study on EI claims which was released today. The study shows a whopping decrease of 13,300 recipients, or 2% of the overall claimants. This is Canada's 6th decline in 7 months, leaving the current number of recipients at 640,200.

Leading the pack in decreases was Ontario, shedding 11,200 beneficiaries (2.4%), followed by British Columbia at 1,900, Quebec lost 1,500 and Alberta lost 1,400.

Simply put, this means more people are working and it is becoming more & more difficult for employers to find that perfect employee. More & more employers are realizing that their ideal candidate isn't reading the newspaper's classifieds or looking at online job posting sites. We're seeing evidence of this through the dramatic increase of job postings on our site.

If you'd like to discuss how CMS can help you find that elusive employee, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Here's the study in full from Statistics Canada.

Employment Insurance

January 2011 (Previous release)

The number of people receiving regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits declined by 13,300 (-2.0%) in January to 640,200, the sixth decline in seven months. The number of beneficiaries decreased in seven provinces, with the fastest decline in Ontario.

Fewer Employment Insurance claims

To receive EI benefits, individuals must first submit a claim. There were 242,400 initial and renewal claims received in January, down 4,900 (-2.0%) from December. With this decline, the number of claims was similar to levels observed last June.

Note to readers

All data in this release are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise specified.

Each month, Statistics Canada provides analysis of the current labour market situation, using Employment Insurance (EI) statistics and other sources. Earlier this month, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) provided a picture of overall labour market conditions, including unemployment, total employment and those affected by changes in the labour market.

In this release, Statistics Canada provides additional sub-provincial detail through the EI statistics. Details by industry will follow with data from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours.

EI statistics are produced from an administrative data source from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. These statistics may, from time to time, be affected by changes to the Employment Insurance Act or administrative procedures. The number of regular beneficiaries and the number of claims received for December 2010 and January 2011 are preliminary. In this release, large centres correspond to those with a population of 10,000 or more.

The number of beneficiaries is a measure of all persons who received EI benefits from January 9 to 15. This period coincides with the reference week of the LFS.

EI statistics indicate the number of people who received EI benefits, and should not be confused with data coming from the LFS, which provides information on the total number of unemployed people.

There are always a certain proportion of unemployed people who do not qualify for benefits. Some unemployed people have not contributed to the program because they have not worked in the past 12 months or their employment is not insured. Other unemployed people have contributed to the program but do not meet the eligibility criteria, such as workers who left their job voluntarily or those who did not accumulate enough hours of work to receive benefits.

The change in the number of regular EI beneficiaries reflects various situations, including people becoming beneficiaries, people going back to work, and people exhausting their regular benefits.

The situation across Canada varied. Ontario experienced the largest decline (-8,400), followed by Quebec (-1,600) and Alberta (-500). Claims increased in all other provinces and territories, most notably in New Brunswick (+1,100).

Claims provide an indication of the number of people who could become beneficiaries.

Largest declines in beneficiaries in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta

All provinces except those in Atlantic Canada recorded a fourth consecutive monthly decline in the number of beneficiaries in January.

In Ontario, the number of regular beneficiaries fell by 11,200 (-5.5%) to 192,600, and was the largest of four consecutive monthly declines in the province.

In British Columbia, the number of beneficiaries fell by 1,900 (-2.4%) in January to 76,100, while it declined by 1,500 (-0.8%) to 184,000 in Quebec. In Alberta, the number declined by 1,400 (-3.0%) to 44,800.

In New Brunswick, the only province with a notable increase in January, the number of beneficiaries rose by 840 (+2.5%) to 34,300.

Sub-provincial and demographic overview

Employment Insurance data by sub-provincial region, sex and age are not seasonally adjusted and are therefore compared on a year-over-year basis.

Year-over-year declines in most large centres continued

Between January 2010 and January 2011, the number of regular beneficiaries fell by 98,900 (-11.3%) at the national level, with decreases in 122 of the 143 large centres (see map). The number of large centres reporting year-over-year declines has been relatively stable over the past 10 months. Large centres are those with a population of 10,000 or more.

The five large centres in Newfoundland and Labrador all had fewer EI beneficiaries in January. The fastest decrease occurred in St. John's, where the number fell by 710 to 5,700. This was the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

The number of regular beneficiaries fell in 29 of the 33 large centres in Quebec between January 2010 and January 2011. The fastest declines occurred in Saint-Georges, Granby, Dolbeau-Mistassini and Rouyn-Noranda. Montréal recorded 7,800 fewer beneficiaries, the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. In the census metropolitan area of Québec, the number of beneficiaries declined by 430, the first decrease in eight months.

In Ontario, 36 of its 41 large centres posted declines between January 2010 and January 2011. The most notable declines were in Greater Sudbury, Windsor, Tillsonburg, Leamington and Belleville. In Toronto, 80,400 people received benefits in January, down 19,500 from 12 months earlier. This was the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

In Alberta, all 12 large centres had fewer regular beneficiaries. The pace of decline was fastest in Brooks, Grande Prairie, Red Deer, Camrose and Medicine Hat. In Calgary, the number of beneficiaries fell by 6,200 to 14,600, the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. In Edmonton, the number of beneficiaries decreased by 3,200 to 15,300, also the 10th consecutive decline.

In British Columbia, the number of beneficiaries fell in 21 of 25 large centres in the 12 months to January. The fastest declines were in Fort St. John, Williams Lake, Prince Rupert and Prince George. In Victoria, the number of beneficiaries declined year over year for the 10th consecutive month, down 370 to 4,400. In Vancouver, those receiving benefits fell by 3,800 to 34,800, the eighth decline in a row.

Demographic groups

Faster year-over-year decline for men than women

Between January 2010 and January 2011, the number of male EI regular beneficiaries fell by 79,000 (-13.4%) to 512,500. This was the 11th consecutive month with a year-over-year decline.

For men, the fastest rates of decline occurred among those aged under 25 years (-15.9%) and 25 to 54 (-15.7%). Over the same period, the number of beneficiaries decreased by 3.2% among men aged 55 and over.

The rate of decline was slower among female beneficiaries. The number of women receiving regular benefits decreased by 19,900 (-6.9%) to 267,200. This was the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

For women aged under 25 years, the number of beneficiaries decreased by 3,400 (-14.9%), while among those aged 25 to 54, it decreased by 18,700 (-8.9%). In contrast, the number of female beneficiaries aged 55 and over rose by 2,200 (+4.1%).

Available on CANSIM: tables 276-0001 to 276-0006, 276-0009, 276-0011, 276-0015 and 276-0016.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2604.

Data tables are also now available online. From the Key resource module of our website under Summary tables, choose Subject then Labour.

Data on Employment Insurance for February will be released on April 18.

A set of maps, Employment Insurance Statistics Maps, January 2011 (73-002-X, free), is now available online. The maps show percent changes in the number of people receiving regular EI benefits for all census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations in Canada. From the Key resource module of our website, under Publications, choose All subjects, then Labour.

For more information, or to order data, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-866-873-8788; 613-951-4090; labour@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Kevin Forneris (613-951-8235) or Vincent Ferrao (613-951-4750), Labour Statistics Division.

Where Are All of the Insurance Jobs in Canada? CMS Has Them!

We've recently undertaken a few new recruitment projects across Canada, filling adjuster's roles throughout Atlantic Canada as well as Western Canada.

Our Atlantic Canadian jobs include positions in Edmunston, NB, St. John, NB, Halifax, NS, St. John’s, NL and Clarenville, NF.

We're also filling several roles in Calgary for both BI adjusters and Property adjusters.

Are you interested in taking your career to new heights? If so, maybe you should get in touch with us and see if any of these opportunities are the right fit for you. Alternately, if you're interested in further recruitment and employment related articles, please follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

How Engaged Are Your Employees? It's Up To Your Management

A new study released by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK reveals that employees take their queues to 'go the extra mile' from their management.

Obvious factors from management, such as feedback, praise and guidance were all elements that affect employee engagement - but the study went on to reveal that autonomy and empowerment from management also go a long way and the level of interest the manager shows in an employee.

This is a huge area for management to consider, given this article published by the Edmonton Journal which points to the Edmonton Research firm Psychometrics Canada where of 368 executives polled, nearly 70% found the level of employee engagement to be problematic. The study by Psychometrics can be read in full at this link.

Employers, you should look to CMS Management Consulting Services is in order to assess the level of engagement at work and what can be done to optimize it. In the mean time, here is an article regarding the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's study.

The extent to which managers provide guidance, feedback and the appropriate level of autonomy for staff is key to whether employees go the extra mile for their organization, according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in the United Kingdom.

"The central role of managers in boosting individual and organizational performance is well recognized…” said Ben Willmott, senior public policy adviser at CIPD. “But managers need more specific, tried-and-tested guidance on what they can do on a day-to-day basis to fulfill this key role well.”

The research asked employees what management behaviours supported them in focusing on what they do; feeling good about themselves in their role; and acting in a way that demonstrates commitment to their organization’s values and objectives.

The most frequently mentioned management competencies for supporting employee engagement were:
•reviewing and guiding
•feedback, praise and recognition
•autonomy and empowerment
•level of interest the manager shows in employees as individuals

"In today's tough economic environment, how managers manage is even more important in supporting employee commitment and motivation in the face of job cuts, pay freezes and cuts to training and development budgets," said Willmott.

Running late today - you're not alone!

Career Builder released a study today with Harris Interactive that points to tardiness in the workplace. Shockingly, the study says that one in five employees are running late to work at least once a week!

In contrast, the next day Career Builder released this study as reported by HRReporter.com that points to the recession for improving the punctuality of US employees.

As an employer, do these numbers add up to you? Perhaps you're one of the three in ten employers that the Canadian study says have fired an employee for tardiness?

If you're interested in further recruitment and employment related articles, please follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Nearly One-in-Five Workers Late to the Office at Least Once a Week, Finds New CareerBuilder Canada Survey

    -- Hiring Managers Share Most Outrageous Tardiness Excuses --

TORONTO, Feb. 23, 2011 /CNW/ -- Workers may be having a tough time with their time management as more are arriving late to their desks. A new CareerBuilder.ca survey reveals that 19 per cent of workers said they arrive late to work at least once a week, up from 17 per cent last year. Eleven per cent said they are late two or more times a week. This survey was conducted among 227 Canadian employers and 550 Canadian employees between November 15 and December 2, 2010.

Workers shared a variety of reasons for being tardy, such as lack of sleep (24 per cent) and traffic (24 per cent). Fifteen per cent blamed public transportation for their tardiness, while twelve per cent indicated bad weather delayed them. Other common reasons included getting kids to school or daycare, Internet use or their spouse.

"While workers will sometimes be late due to circumstances out of their control, they need to be aware of their companies' tardiness policies," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder. "Regardless of the reason, workers who are running late should always be honest with their managers."

While some employers are more lenient with worker tardiness, others have stricter policies. Three-in-ten (30 per cent) employers said they have terminated an employee for being late.

Hiring managers provided the following examples of the most outrageous excuses employees offered for arriving late to work:

    --  Employee claimed a bear stopped his car and broke his window and tried
      to grab them.
  --  Employee claimed a prostitute stole his car keys.
  --  Employee claimed he couldn't find his clothes.
  --  Employee claimed his dog ate his Blackberry.
  --  Employee claimed he ran over himself with the company truck.
  --  Employee claimed he was playing a video game and didn't want to break
      up the group he was playing with.
  --  Employee claimed her grandmother went missing.
  --  Employee claimed he forgot it was a workday.


  Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within Canada by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 227 Canadian employers and 550 Canadian workers (employed full-time; not self-employed; non-government) ages 18 and over between November 15 and December 2, 2010 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With pure probability samples of 227 and 550 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 6.5 and +/- 4.18 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

    About CareerBuilder.ca:

CareerBuilder.ca is a leading job site in Canada. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), the Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), CareerBuilder.ca powers the career centers for more than 250 Canadian partners that reach national, local, industry and niche audiences. These include leading portals such as MSN.ca and Macleans.ca. Job seekers visit CareerBuilder.ca every month to search for opportunities by industry, location, company and job type, sign up for automatic e-mail job alerts, and get advice on job hunting and career management. For more information about CareerBuilder.ca products and services, visit http://www.careerbuilder.ca.

New Challenges in Obtaining Work in Canada

Over the past several months, we at CMS have been encountering increasing problems in the justice system in terms of obtaining criminal record checks. The majority of our clients hire background checking firms to assess any candidates they are interested in hiring. The background check includes a criminal record check.

CMS encourages the use of background checks and historically this has been a straight forward procedure. In recent months however, the systems have been failing and have been returning inaccurate results. So people who have no criminal record are mistakenly being identified as “unclear” (indicating the individual has or may have a criminal record).

Later it is being identified that the system made a mistake and confused a person with someone with the same name who is actually of different gender or birth date. The trouble is that the only way it was eventually determined that the report was wrong was after the candidate, in attempting to prove their innocence (having been accused of being guilty) had to have their finger prints taken and resubmitted into the system to prove who they are and that they don’t have a criminal record.

The further problem is that this process takes up to six months and in that time the opportunity for the job has been lost. One has to wonder what the criminal justice system does with those finger prints once they have them. Will the upshot of this be that one day our finger prints will accompany all of us to a job interview? It makes me think of my time in China training HR managers who had very little work to do in assessing someone’s work history because their personal file contained every bit of information about them and followed them from one job to the next.

The enclosed article by Derek Sankey, as printed in the 02.05.11 edition of the Calgary Herald, paints an interesting picture of the 'bottle-neck' in today's background checks. I would call it a 'must read' for job seekers and employers alike.

Cindy Saunders
Principal - CMS Management Consulting

Background checks hit bottleneck

New RCMP rules delay hiring process for months

By Derek Sankey, For The Calgary Herald

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Background+checks+bottleneck/4229038/story.html#ixzz1DbgcWp1N

Recruiters are struggling to deal with a surge in criminal record checks under new RCMP rules for "vulnerable sectors" and private screening firms say the backlog is creating some difficult human resource challenges.

Vulnerable sectors include construction, medical, law enforcement, volunteers, lawyers, retail jobs involving cash, the financial sector and many more.

"It is a massive issue," says Ainsley Muller, director of business development for Express Pardons. "It certainly has escalated since mass layoffs have occurred. There is an onslaught of (job) applications."

Hiring managers often use criminal record checks as a screening tool to immediately rule out anybody who comes back with a positive result for a record. The problem is that oftentimes, the 24-hour check flags people with absolutely no record -- just the same name and date or place of birth as a criminal.

That type of check has two possible results: "clear" or "may or may not have a record."

"They tend to throw out a lot of really good candidates based on the check coming back with a positive hit," says Muller.

Under new rules introduced last July by the RCMP, a person is also matched by birthdate and gender -- but not by name -- against a list of 14,000 pardoned sex offenders.

Thousands of people are being incorrectly flagged, while the number of longer and more in-depth fingerprint checks has skyrocketed.

It's an imperfect system, and one that police are working with pre-employment screeners to resolve, but the concept behind it both helps and hinders various organizations in their search for the best and brightest talent.

"Your gut feeling is only 50 per cent of the equation," says Julie McLean, with preemployment screening firm Canpro HR Services Inc. "Criminal records and education are the two things that we see most often that don't match up to what the individual says."

It does, however, create some pressing HR challenges for recruiters. Long wait times -- it can take three to five months for some fingerprint criminal record checks, says Muller -- makes many volunteers simply move on, while good employees are also being overlooked.

"Until they know what their (criminal) record is, they can't make an offer of employment," says McLean. "Who's going to risk hiring someone for maybe eight months to a year and not know what the 'unclear' result is for?"

She says she's working with RCMP and industry to find a solution that works for all parties and does not put the RCMP at risk of liability for providing potentially inaccurate results.

Human rights legislation varies by province in Canada, with some areas protecting individuals from discrimination for not being hired due to a criminal record with or without a pardon, depending on province.

In Alberta, for example, neither pardoned nor unpardoned records are protected. In B.C., both types of records are protected.

Muller says recruiters need to arm themselves with the tools to handle the delicate subject of criminal records appropriately and in a way that puts matters into perspective. His job is to help people clear their names by working with employers to get pardons for past minor offences -- a process that can take six months to a year or more by itself.

Muller refers to Mike Quinn of IBM Canada when approaching the subject of criminal records, who put it this way: "The operative phrase is to apply common sense and judgment to these situations. A person who did something silly 25 years ago when he was still in high school would be looked at differently than somebody charged with bank robbery three years ago."

Background checks include more than just criminal record checks. They include credit checks, personal reference checks, credential and academic verification and any other requirements unique to any given field.

The current problem is the delay in finding out what the criminal record is for, given the lengthy wait times to access a definitive result from the RCMP and the Canadian Police Information Centre.

There is also the possibility that a positive result with one police force will not yield the same result on municipal databases and people also change names, confusing things further.

In Calgary, the average time for police checks is about six weeks, exceeding its target of 10 days to two weeks, but measures are being taken to reduce the wait.

derek.sankey@telus.net

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald