BCjobs Blog

As the economy works to pull itself out of recession, there are still many Canadians who are struggling to find work. These individuals hail from the blue collar factories to the white collar boardrooms and comprise everyone in between. It has been a challenging period for many, although with long-term joblessness on the rise, the effects can be devastating. The Globe & Mail has created a comprehensive report looking at this very issue.

Every year the Vancouver Sun compiles and releases its lists of B.C.’s Top 100 Companies. In essence, these are two lists of publicly traded companies — one highlighting the 100 strongest companies, and the other the 100 fastest growing companies. For job seekers, this is a wealth of information when looking for new career opportunities.

Seasonal jobs are good for more than earning extra spending money or awesome discounts at retailers for holiday
shopping (though, let’s face it – who could resist based on that alone?). In fact, taking on a seasonal job can
be a great stepping stone on the way to beginning or getting back into a career.

Seasonal jobs are good for more than earning extra spending money or awesome discounts at retailers for holiday
shopping (though, let’s face it – who could resist based on that alone?). In fact, taking on a seasonal job can
be a great stepping stone on the way to beginning or getting back into a career.

In a National Post article by Andrew Mayeda, he discusses the challenges faced by the Millennials — those born after 1980 — in finding a job in today’s economy. Specifically he profiles an individual with a master’s degree in international affairs and volunteer experience working abroad for non-profit organizations. At 27 she is finding it challenging to find full-time employment and has been forced to take a contract job.

Each year for the past nine years CareerXroads has conducted a survey about the sources of new hires. The most recent survey (full report available here) solicited source of hire stats for 43 large companies, who collectively filled 176,000 positions in 2009. While the sample size is small, and arguments can and have been made about the accuracy and applicability of the statistics, the survey results are nevertheless revealing, and have some important implications for how jobseekers invest their job hunt energy.

Today Statistics Canada released its monthly Labour Force Survey and the results are slightly more positive than economists had anticipated. There were 35,800 jobs created in August and the unemployment rate edged up a tenth of a percentage point to 8.1%, due to higher participation in the labour market. The Canadian job market has now regained nearly all of the jobs lost during the recession, however, the unemployment rate is roughly 2 per cent higher than it was prior to the start of the decline. This may be partly…