Recruiting Blog

Canadian employment rose a hefty 341k in 2021 Q3 (June-to-September), leaving total jobs now fully back to pre-COVID levels, and up 4% from a year ago. The jobless rate remains 1.2 ppts above the pre-pandemic mark, at 6.9%, but progress is coming in a hurry with the damage now focused on a very few select pockets of the job market.

A Vancouver employment agency is offering a solution to quell a COVID-fuelled job crunch that’s devastating B.C. restaurants, stores and businesses. “Meet the labour shortage by tapping into talent that’s traditionally been excluded,” said Matthew Smedley, executive director of a non-profit group that provides job-skills training to unemployed Vancouver Downtown Eastside residents. This week, the agency released a comprehensive guide

Changes to BC labour laws to limit employment to age 16 and older take effect Oct. 15, more than two years after Labour Minister Harry Bains introduced legislation that limits younger people to only “light work” such as stocking shelves, dishwashing and farm and yard work. Bains says the province is moving ahead after extensive consultation with young people, parents

‘The ski industry relies so very heavily in normal times on international staff,’ says one resort. Heavily reliant on seasonal workers from all over the world to stay afloat, staff shortages are one of the biggest concerns facing B.C. ski resorts right now. With the pandemic continuing to prove a roadblock for many trying to enter the country, resorts are

If BC’s job market were real estate, you could call it a buyers’ market. Anyone looking for work is in luck. Statistics Canada says the economy added 157,000 jobs across the country last month, bringing employment back to pre-pandemic levels for the first time. In BC, however, employment has been above pre-pandemic levels for months, and the unemployment rate fell

The pandemic led many Canadians to reconsider their careers, asking questions like: “Do I have a future in this? Can I back to school for something else?” As Anne Gaviola reports in the Global News series Pandemic Pivot, there are plenty of opportunities in the tech industry.

Canada is facing a hiring crisis. You’d think that workers hit hard by the pandemic would be scrambling for work, but things have changed. Gone are the days when employers would post a job and the resumes would start pouring in. According to a new study from the Business Development Bank of Canada, small- and medium-sized businesses across the country

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reshape the workplace many employers are implementing innovative policies to help attract, and in many cases retain employees. A Vancouver employer is choosing to offer their staff more flexibility when it comes to the holidays. The Boys and Girls Clubs of South Coast BC will allow roughly 120 full-time staffers to swap out any of five statutory

British Columbians looking for rewarding health-care careers now have access to a state-of-the-art learning environment with Okanagan College’s new Health Sciences Centre, which opened to students this semester. “If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s how essential health-care workers are to our province,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. “We know B.C. needs more health-care professionals, and we’re committed to

The pandemic has increased demand in certain occupations in BC. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the way we work. Granted, many sectors were negatively affected by shutdowns related to the pandemic, such as the tourism and hospitality sectors. However, some sectors saw a surge in job vacancies. The federal government carried out research on how the pandemic is affecting the labour force in each province

We are not big fans with some questions employers ask candidates – one of those questions is “Why should we hire you?” – we recently came across a posting on LinkedIn from a recruiter who shared this story from one of their clients: I had a client recently complete a 7 step interview process for a VP Level role, with

The B.C. government is expanding its Innovator Skills Initiative program, doubling the amount offered to businesses to $10,000 to hire people from under-represented groups into technology jobs. The program is being extended beyond traditional university degrees, when hiring co-op students for a minimum of four months in a technology-related field. It now includes people with recent industry-recognized certifications, “micro-credential” training,