Jobless Numbers Go Up

The numbers keep rising. This is the fact when it comes to unemployment in Canada.

Statistics Canada says that in May of this year, 778,700 people were receiving employment insurance – or EI which is actually unemployment insurance. Compared to the previous month, this was a 9.2 percent increase.
This is a severe increase, compared to the increase of just under three percent that April witnessed, as compared to March, 2009.
The worst hit provinces were the oil-rich Alberta, where the low oil prices have caused a severe setback to the economy and Ontario, which has been hit by the crisis in the auto industry and lower demand abroad for manufactured goods.
The latest data comes just days after Bank of Canada, the country’s central bank, said the recession was over.
The bank says Canada’s economy will grow by a modest 1.3 percent during the current quarter ending September and then by three percent during the final quarter of this year.
However, officials say the labour market will be slow to pick up.

Employer’s Roadmap to Help Hiring of Skilled Immigrants

The Canadian government has come up with a new tool kit to help local employers hire and retain foreign trained professionals.

The Employer’s Roadmap aims to help employers find qualified immigrants to fill their vacancies.

The Roadmap is full of links to resources that range from seeking the Labour Market Opinion, should they want to fire someone directly from abroad, to interpreting foreign credentials and experiences of immigrants.
It also gives tips to employers as to how to reach out to foreign trained professionals.

Studies have shown that while the education levels of Canada’s newcomer population has been increasing, the labour market integration has been slow if not in decline, and this has become not just a political and social issue, but one of economic as well because of the billions of dollars the country loses by forcing engineers and doctors to drive cabs.
And successive governments have taken a number of measures to alleviate this situation.

The Employer’s Roadmap can be found here.