Impress December 2009

At Last!!! Good News For The Printing Industry|!!!

Jobless rate spikes as manufacturing hit hard

After two months of moderate growth, employment across the country dropped by 43,200 jobs, all of them part time, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

The drop-off pushes Canada's unemployment rate up 0.2 per cent to 8.6 per cent, a number that many predict will continue to climb until it hits almost 10 per cent in 2010. This erases the positive growth in September of around 30,000 jobs and demonstrates that employers are still hesitant to take on new hires in this dismal economic environment.

Down south, the news was even more grim, with the United States' unemployment rate already reaching into the double digits at 10.2 per cent, the highest since April 1983.

In Canada, most of the month's disappointing decline came from retail, wholesale, natural resources, and "other services," and the data, contained in Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey, showed that women aged 25 and older and youths between 15 and 24 accounted for all of the job losses.

"October was a reality check for a Canadian labour market that had been seeing a lot of hiring without much to show for it in terms of production," wrote Avery Shenfeld, CIBC World Markets' chief economist. "October's report hinted that the earlier run-up may have, in part, been statistical noise... Put the last three months together, and the trend shows very small net hiring on average, a result that is much more consistent with the limited growth we've thus far seen in economic output."

"Today's release of negative job numbers for October undoes much of the surprisingly strong reported improvement in September," said Erin Weir, an economist with the United Steelworkers, in a morning note.

On the thin plus side, construction jobs were up, as were transportation and warehousing, while the manufacturing sector continued to fare poorly. "The ongoing pressures to Canadian manufacturing remain evident as inventories continue to be drawn down and firms remain hesitant about boosting production," TD Bank economist Grant Bishop wrote in a note.

The damage was also worse out west, with 15,000 jobs lost in Alberta, which has suffered the steepest rate of decline of all the provinces since the economic crash, and a decline of 13,000 in British Columbia.

"Other pockets of employment growth were construction, education and health care, which supports the notion that government stimulus is currently the only job creator," Weir wrote. "However, a declining number of public-sector employees contradicts this hypothesis."

Rising unemployment in the early stages of a timid recovery from recession is not considered unusual, but the October data revealed unusual weakness given the hopeful signals of the previous two months.

Not only did 43,200 jobs vanish into thin air in October – the result would have been worse without the pickup of 27,500 in self-employment during the month.

That meant there were 70,700 fewer actual employees in October – 45,200 fewer in the private sector, and 25,600 less in the public sector.

In a weak economy, economists discount self-employment gains as mostly involuntary, the result of enterprising Canadians who have tried but cannot find regular employment.

Since employment in Canada peaked in October 2008, the economy has shed around 400,000 jobs. But the latest numbers, Weir writes, show the first full year of employment data since the economic crash took hold. And the conclusions are not positive.

"A sectoral breakdown implies a disproportionately large loss of relatively good jobs," Weir writes. "More than half of the employment decline, 218,000, was in manufacturing. Construction and other goods-producing industries eliminated a further 112,000 jobs. The entire service sector shrank by 70,000."

Not all the details in the October data were gloomy, however.

Statistics Canada noted that all of the job losses were part-time, and that, including self-employment, there was a net increase of 16,500 full-time jobs.

As well, hourly wages were 3.3 per cent higher than a year ago, well above Canada's official inflation rate.

But that's where the good news ended. The agency said the October data pushes the job loss total since October 2008, when the global recession began in Canada, to 400,000, or 2.3 per cent of the labour force.

The employment decline in the private sector has been more precipitous, a 4.1 per cent fall.

"Since October 2008, employment has fallen in most industries, with the steepest declines in manufacturing (-11 per cent), natural resources (-11 per cent), construction (-5.8 per cent), and transportation and warehousing (-5.8 per cent),`` the agency said in a note.

On the plus side, construction jobs edged up, as did transportation and warehousing, while the weak manufacturing sector was mostly unchanged.

Regionally, Alberta, British Columbia and Newfoundland suffered the greatest number of job losses proportionally.

With files from The Canadian Press

Canada depends on a strong manufacturing sector: Hargrove

The former CAW president places the blame for manufacturing's fall squarely on government policy.

“The standard of living of every Canadian depends on us having a strong manufacturing base,” says Buzz Hargrove, fumbling for change to pay for his coffee while struggling to keep his cell phone at his ear.

“The worst thing we could do is continue as if there is no problem,” he barks into the mobile device. “We can’t allow our government to continue to ignore the importance of this sector,” he continued.

The former president of the Canadian Auto Workers Union—and keynote speaker at the Revitalize Manufacturing Conference on November 10—is grooving now.

“We need government leadership. It’s government policy that undermines our ability to continue as a strong manufacturing nation.

“We have to push for more growth in manufacturing jobs. We need to attract more jobs and start rebuilding instead of accepting the status quo.”

The status quo Hargrove is referring to is the total evisceration of Canada’s manufacturing sector.

More than 210,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since the autumn of 2008. That’s on top of the 355,000 jobs lost in the sector since 2002, which came after scores of plant closures.

The sector’s GDP contribution has dipped from 18 per cent of $921 billion in 2001 to 15 per cent of our current $1.2 trillion.

That’s a major slide for an industry that has seen productivity steadily increasing since the heydays of a 70-cent dollar.

These numbers point to a sector in dire need of a renaissance, and Buzz hopes bringing some key players together at the November 10 event to hammer out some strategies will be enough to get the ball rolling.

Presented at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto, it will bring Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty—a keen industry watcher who briefly held the economic development and trade portfolio along side his duties as premier—and his current Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello together with industry leaders and manufacturers to devise recovery strategies while making it clear to various levels of government how dire the situation truly is.

“Other jurisdictions, which compete against us for jobs and investment, have recognized the importance of manufacturing and have acted quickly, putting all kinds of incentives in place to attract manufacturers while our governments are saying you are on your own, sink or swim,” says a vexed Hargrove.

“The decline in manufacturing is not inevitable. But if we don’t start reversing this trend now, it’s going to be very difficult to do in a few more years. I’m very worried about it.”

The Revitalize Manufacturing Conference will be a good start to ensuring the government gets the message.

* Courtesy Michael Ouellette, November 04, 2009

Statistics and Facts About the Staffing Industry

I have been on the National Board of Canada's Staffing Industry Association (ACSESS) for more than 8 years now ... and one of my beefs has been our inability to gather consistent and regular statistics that give a picture of our industry. It is something we are working on, and will correct, however there are some other sources of facts that are relevant.

Today ... at the 10th Annual ACSESS conference I was treated to a number of facts and thought that I would share some of them.

A presentation from Statistics Canada gave the latest data on our industry which is for the calendar year 2006. Canada's staffing industry is an $8 Billion industry, up 8.6% from the previous year. This means that we provide a huge number of people with jobs, we pay a lot of money in taxes, we make a major contribution to the Canadian economy and we support a huge number of charitable causes. We also represent a significant lobby capability when discussing our industry agenda with various levels of government.

Ontario has still by far the largest concentration of staffing business, representing 57% of the revenues generated, although Alberta did surpass Quebec in size representing 17.6% of the business, no doubt driven by the hot Alberta oil economy.

For those who think that the staffing industry are "fat cats" think again ... with average profitability of 3.5% (2.6% in Ontario) this industry operates with very skinny margins. This is a fact that seems out of sorts with an economy experiencing greater and greater skills shortages ... which by the laws of supply and demand should mean increasing margins.

Later in the day I listened to a debate about the industry and the President of the American Staffing Association was one of the speakers. The ASA do have strong data gathering capability and Richard Wahlquist was able to give out some very interesting statistics related to the temporary industry in the States ... much of which should be similar here in Canada.

Surprising to some, but not those in the industry, was a statistic that suggests 90% of "temporary workers" are satisfied with their staffing company experiences. This was validated in the UK and Netherlands in addition to the US. This might fly in the face of some "anecdotal" stories of disaffected temporary workers which can always be found if you look hard enough ... and clearly it is "bad news" stories sell newspapers!

75% of temporary workers saw their assignments as a bridge to something else, which might have been a career change or just a full time position ... and most of them achieved their goal. 88% of temporary workers felt that their temporary assignments added to their resume, thus making them more employable. 20% of temporary workers would not want to be anything else! Validating the fact that there is a segment of the population that enjoys the flexibility afforded by the temporary worker lifestyle, for many and varied reasons.

Less than 5% of workers work for staffing companies, meaning that 95% of workers are in full time employment with some other type of company. I would have thought that the temporary workforce would have represented a larger number, but I guess not. So ... just 5% of the workforce (and typically a rotating 5% as temps take full time employment) provide our economy with the flexibility it needs to meet the ebb and flow of work and keep Canadian companies competitive in a global economy.

This is an industry that I believe in strongly ... I work hard to represent the industry's membership on our board and will see this industry rise in prominence over the coming years as demographic pressures and skills shortages underscore the value we can bring. Its nice to have a few facts and statistics to support these views!

*Courtesy of Kevin Dee

Skilled Trades December 2009

Does The Print Industry Have A Future?

You can hold the future of Canadian newspapers in your hand. It’s the size and weight of a large paperback book, with a memory that stores about 200 titles.

Kindle, an E-book created by Amazon that can mimic pages of novels, textbooks and newspapers, is one of the latest technologies that’s challenging the print industry in North America.

Though a young technology – first released in the U.S. in 2007 – it’s part of a larger trend pushing more print publications online to contend with the interests of younger readers.

And now, as the struggling economy has forced some long-time publications to close, many newspaper traditionalists are left wondering what the future of print will look like in just a few years.

“The newspapers themselves, the print product, might not survive,” said Mary Doyle, a print journalism instructor at The University of Western Ontario.

Many more of today’s readers are getting news online, she said, so newspapers as a system of delivery might eventually die – but not the content.

“The newsroom . . . can survive by looking beyond just the print product and they’re doing that already. I’m confident there is a future for all the excellent journalism that print reporters and editors do,” she said.

“(We should) not mourn for the newspaper the way it was, but think of the journalism instead and how that can be delivered in a more effective way.”

Many newspapers, from the London Free Press to the Globe and Mail, have amped up their websites with videos, photo galleries, blogs and breaking news stories.

So far this year, about 10 per cent more unique visitors are also viewing newspaper websites compared to the same period last year, according to a recent Newspaper Association of America study. It’s the highest figure of its kind since the association began tracking the trend in 2004.

But whether or not newspapers develop successful websites, the poor economy is putting pressure on many Canadian publishers and threatening their products’ survival.

Across North America, newspapers have been falling under the credit crunch. Denver’s Rocky Mountain News stopped printing days shy of its 150th anniversary and more than 30 U.S. dailies have sought bankruptcy protection.

In Canada, job cuts have affected Torstar, Canwest, Sun Media, CTVglobemedia,
Transcontinental and independents like the Chronicle Herald in Halifax. Torstar also reported a fourthquarter loss of $211.2 million compared to a $47.2 million profit last year.

Many newspapers have also had to cut back on the number of days they publish, including the London Free Press, which slashed its Sunday edition. The National Post will stop its Monday paper for the summer.

“The economy sure didn’t do journalists any favours,” Doyle said. “I think it’s a double whammy. All newsrooms were struggling to deal with the new online reality. Then the economy tanked – it just made everything so much harder.”

In 2006, the print industry was making a modest and stable profit, according to Statistics Canada. Much of that money came from advertising. For example, in 2005 the industry earned more than two-thirds of its operating revenues from ads.

Today, it’s a challenge for newspapers to make their websites more attractive to advertisers so they don’t lose precious dollars, said Paul Berton, Editor-in-Chief of the London Free Press.

“Part of the problem is that advertisers might not understand yet the wonder and value of the Internet or websites. Certainly our readers do,” he said. “Maybe it’s just advertisers catching up to younger readers.”

About 200,000 people read the London Free Press daily – the same number of unique visitors who view the paper’s website every day, Berton said. Though the online component has become more important to readership,he said he’s not worried about the Free Press’s future.

“We have more readers than we’ve ever had in our history,” he said. “The (print) industry may never make as much money. It doesn’t mean people aren’t looking for information; it means they’re looking for it in different ways.”

To Berton, that involves creating a more robust and dynamic website and experimenting with different methods of news delivery, such as Twitter, a free
social messaging forum. And that’s how newspapers can survive, he said.

“In the end, the best thing for newspapers to do is to deliver interesting stories and give readers facts to help them get through their days.”

The Canadian print industry has struggled in past economic downturns, especially during the early 1990s, according to Statistics Canada. Ad revenues decreased by 12 per cent between 1991 and 1994, and the industry took until 1997 to regain stable revenues, despite a rebounding economy in 1993.

Though today’s recession hasn’t wiped out the Canadian newspaper industry, hundreds of layoffs and cutbacks are looming ahead of new journalism graduates.

The Guelph Mercury, Hamilton Spectator and Waterloo Region Record dailies cut 64 jobs in February, while printing firm Transcontinental Inc. cut 1,500 positions. Sun Media announced in December it was cutting 10 per cent of its workforce.

Keeping up with the job market and the changing reader interests is important to Western’s journalism program, said Doyle.

Students are taught print, radio, TV and online reporting, and now instructors are considering adding multimedia assignments to help prepare students for what’s now expected of novice journalists, Doyle said.

“You have to know how to tell stories in more than just text,” she said. “Adding a video component, taking pictures, adding (audio), being able to post things online. Any or all of those things make the grads we turn out more valuable in this current climate.”

The future of journalism will be exciting to see unfold, but it would be upsetting to see newspapers die, Doyle said, adding she has been reading the London Free Press and the Globe and Mail since age 12.

But with technologies like Kindle sparking more of the public’s interest in the print industry, people will learn to adapt to whatever changes come, she said.

“Newspaper traditionalists will adapt; people always adapt. I would be more worried if the actual content died.”

*Courtesy of Jenni Dunning

Finding The Perfect Fit...

Finding an employee who is a perfect fit for a company and its corporate culture is often difficult, costly and time-consuming. Further, if a company has a special project lasting for a specific time frame, and lacks the in-house personnel, a temporary worker is often the answer. As such, looking to a staffing agency to assist in finding temporary or permanent workers saves company resources; often the match is successful.

Function
1. A staffing agency provides temporary or permanent workers to a company by targeting the company's need, then matching a worker's skill set, background and personality accordingly, providing a "fit" for both staffer and employer.
Features
2. Staffing agencies, for a fee or other agreed-upon terms, advertise, interview, test and perform background/reference checks on potential employees. The agency handles payroll, taxes, workers compensation and other benefits concerning the worker while she remains on its payroll.
Types
3. Agencies often specialize in areas of expertise; for example, some provide medical staffers, others IT specialists, and still others high-level management.
Benefits
4. Utilizing the services of a staffing agency benefits both the employer and the employee by offering a "safe" alternative to direct hire; each has an opportunity to assess the "fit" without a major commitment.
Potential
5. According to the Department of Labor, the rising cost of health and other benefits continues to challenge today's businesses. As a result, more companies are looking to staffing agencies to fill their positions and shoulder some of their overhead, making the market for staffing agencies appealing.
*courtesy of Debra Bacon- eHow contributing writer

Why Use a Staffing Agency and Recruiters ?

Many companies and corporations both large and small have debated whether or not to utilize the services of staffing agencies and recruiters to supplement their own Human Resources department or hiring process. These companies have weighed all the factors, both pros and cons, but have they examined all the potential benefits.

1. Free up Human Resources to meet their other obligations. The main role of a Human Resources department is as an employee advocate and consultant to corporate management providing employee representation. In addition, competing for HR’s time and attention are the so many government requirements. HR has is doing all that they can simply to keep up and stay compliant. In addition to administrating government requirements, record keeping and the countless meetings HR departments are responsible for keep the business legally compliant, HR is also charged with maintaining the benefits including informing employees of 401K results, monitoring vacation days, and many times, coordinating travel between branches, not to mention assisting in facility security (distributing and collecting access badges, etc.). This stretches the time and resources of the entire department. Engaging a technical recruiter or staffing firm frees up the valuable time of an already taxed department. Firms can either work alongside HR (having access to collected résumés and those who’ve expressed a desire in the company) or independently (utilizing their own candidate channels).

2. Let those with the technical skills make the recommendation. Many times, HR departments and HR recruiters do not have the technical knowledge to correctly and accurately identify the appropriately skilled candidates and keeping those lacking necessary skills from consuming valuable time and resources. Many staffing agencies and recruiters employee the talent of former technical professionals themselves. The best technical recruiters stay abreast of the latest technological trends, tools, software and as a result they know just what to look for when they see a position or project description. Smaller agencies may already have a network of qualified technical professionals and know who is available and whether or not they have the necessary skills.

3. Free up hiring managers’ time. In most organizations, HR merely receives or collects candidate resumes, does not do targeted searches and recruiting. They look for keywords on the position description. Very seldom do HR department recruiters possess technical experience themselves (through no fault of their own – that is simply the nature of the industry). As a result, unqualified candidates who appear to have appropriate skills and experience move forward through the hiring process, receive a phone screen or maybe even an onsite interview with a hiring manager and/or an entire review team only to discover this person was unqualified. With technically experienced technical recruiters seriously discriminating and sifting through countless résumés, you can insure only qualified candidates are in front of the hiring managers and/or review teams.

4. Go directly to the source. In most cases, HR will post a need on the corporate website. They may also post on a nationwide job board (i.e.-Monster.com). They probably will not have the time, the resources or the network to do what is called a “targeted” recruiting. Many recruiters will personally know who is qualified, who is happy where they are, who is looking for the next opportunity and who has the skills and talent needed to do more than their current position requires. “Targeted” recruiting requires the professional knowledge of candidates and is dependent upon the technical and personal knowledge of those in the industry. “Passive” recruiting (“recruiting” relying upon jobs postings on the company website and/or job boards) is dependent upon those candidates who might be looking on those job boards or the company website.

5. Selection accuracy. Many HR departments are charged with only a few technical hires per year. Staffing agencies and recruiting firms work on countless positions every day. They know what to look for and can spot “red flags” in resumes or interviews.

6. Access to resources. While large job boards or resume posting sites exist, they are expensive – especially if they are used for just a few technical positions per year. Staffing agencies and recruiting firms have the subscriptions, resources, contacts, associations and connections essential in quickly identifying the right person for the right need.

7. Economically beneficial. While there may be a recruiting fee to quickly identify the right candidate for the position/project requirements, when weighed against the cost involved in the search for an individual who may not work out and get that person up to speed or out the door, engaging a staffing agency or recruiting firm may be just the solution to the woes of getting that position filled or project completed.

*courtesy Eddie Field- Summit Consulting Services

The Commercial Printing Industry

The commercial printing industry is one of the most economically important and technologically advanced industrial sectors in Canada.



Not a single day goes by without the average person coming into contact with printed matter -from food labels, books, newspapers, magazines, catalogues, telephone directories, diaries and annual reports to bonds, currency, stamps, credit cards, passports, leaflets, diplomas and posters, just to name a few.



Canada's printing industry is the fourth largest manufacturing employer in the nation with more than 70,500 employees, who work in 7653 establishments from St. John's to Victoria. In 2008 these employees produced over $10.5 billion worth of shipments, $1.432 billion of which was in export sales. With a gross output multiplier of 1.65, the industry will generate an additional $8 billion in other sectors of the Canadian economy.

The regional distribution of the industry's output is as follows:



* British Columbia 7.9 %
* Alberta 8.4 %
* Saskatchewan 1.2 %
* Manitoba 5.5 %
* Ontario 49.5 %
* Quebec 25.9 %

*courtesy of the CPIA website

Staffing Statistics

A sustained upturn in staffing industry employment would signal the end of the current recession and suggest that overall, employment would begin to grow about three months later, according to new research by the American Staffing Association.

Staffing industry employment has long been considered a popular indicator of current economic conditions and a precursor of overall employment trends. Recent ASA research confirmed this conventional wisdom, but added important nuance.

Key Findings

* Staffing industry employment is a strong coincident economic indicator when the economy is emerging from a recession.
* Staffing industry employment is a leading indicator for nonfarm employment—by about three months when the economy is emerging from a recession.

These conclusions were drawn from statistical analyses of 36 years of government data.

Staffing 2009: Looking for Growth

After one of the most difficult years, everyone is looking for signs of growth. The staffing industry is a good place to start.

The staffing industry has long been considered a coincident economic indicator and a leading employment indicator. That means that changes in the staffing industry coincide with changes in the overall economy.

Despite the current recession,the staffing industry is anticipated to grow faster and add more new jobs over the next decade than just about any other industry.

According to the most recent projections,the employment services industry—which is primarily staffing—is estimated to add 692,000 jobs between 2006 and 2016, making it the second largest job-growth industry.

Jobs, flexibility, a bridge to permanent employment, choice of alternative employment arrangements, and training—these are the benefits staffing firms offer to today's workers. Flexibility and access to talent—these are the benefits staffing firms bring to business clients. Jobs, labor market flexibility, efficient bridging to permanent jobs, training, lower unemployment rates, and enhanced productivity—these are the benefits staffing firms bring to the economy. Read about these benefits in American Staffing 2009, the ASA annual economic analysis.