M9 Newsletter, Issue 10

» Editorial: Manitoba Job Growth
» The Upcoming Skills Shortage
» Stress and the Workplace
» Dealing With the High Cost of Gas
» Public Service: Taking the Electronic Trash Out

Manitoba was the big winner in job growth during April of 2008 across Canada, gaining 9,000 jobs and bringing the unemployment rate down to 0.5%, the lowest in the country after Alberta.

According to Statistics Canada more than 19,000 jobs were filled across Canada, all of them in self-employment and full-time work fields. However the overall unemployment rate nudged up to 6.1% as more Canadians entered the work force. Most of the employment increase was found in the service industries and construction with considerable losses in manufacturing (a total loss of 112,000 jobs in the past year) with most of those losses being in Ontario and Quebec.

What this means for M9 Web Development Corporation is more opportunity to do the things we love the most! That is design websites, build websites and do search optimization for websites (SEO). With more people entering the workforce and more businesses taking the opportunity to expand it is a great time to be Manitoban!

Finding skilled employees was slightly easier for most employers in 2008 compared to 2007 but that is about to change.

This year worldwide trends in skills shortages are making a profound impact in the way businesses hire, train and retain employees. In 2007 41% of all employers had difficulty filling jobs, in 2008 the rate dropped to 31%, but this will change over the next ten years as the population demographics change. And many experts are positive that Canada will not be immune to these changes.

Influencing Factors

Two of the factors that will influence the employee and skill shortage in Canada include the fact that baby boomers will be leaving the workforce and the fact that many technical programs are not receiving enough students. In Canada the population after the Second World War grew quickly with roughly 28 births per 1,000 people (currently the rate is around 11 per 1,000). These people entered the workforce between the 1960 and 1980 and will be retiring very soon.

In addition fewer students are entering job fields like engineering. Instead fields like social sciences and law are attracting the largest number of students (142,000 in Canada in 2006 according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada report Trends in Higher Education

http://www.aucc.ca/_pdf/english/publications/trends_2007_vol1_e.pdf). During that same year only about 55,000 were studying architecture, engineering and related technologies. This creates a distortion in terms of the skills that are available on the market, a distortion that profoundly affects the job market.

As these factors continue to influence the job market the effects will be felt in many industries - in truth, all industries will experience fundamental changes in how they do business. Companies that plan on this skill loss will find themselves in a much better position to weather to coming storm. Ideas such as flex-time, benefits and increased salaries all have potential to help dealing with the new job market but, unfortunately, there are no panaceas and businesses must simply plan to be responsive to the needs of their employees in the future.

The Manpower Company (based in Milwaukee with more than 400,000 clients worldwide with revenues of 21 billion dollars (US) per year) interviewed nearly 43,000 employers in 32 separate countries including 1,742 in Canada in the process of compiling this global survey. Website:

http://www.manpower.com/about/companyoverview.cfm

Finding the Right People

Currently, in the United States, the hardest positions to fill include:

1. Engineers


2. Machinists


3. Skilled Trades


4. Technicians


5. Sales Representatives


6. Finance Staff


7. Mechanics


8. Laborers


9. IT Staff


10. Production Operators

Around the world the hardest positions to fill are:

1. Skilled Manual Trades


2. Sales Representatives


3. Technicians


4. Engineers


5. Management


6. Laborers


7. Administrative Assistants


8. Drivers


9. IT Staff


10. Production Operators

The Cost of Keeping the Wrong People

In March of 2007 the Circuit City Company in the United States (the second largest consumer electronics retailer in the country) fired more than 3,000 of their highest paid salespeople. The moves were designed to reduce expenses in 2008 by more than 100 million dollars.

However.

Losses in the third quarter of the 2007 for Circuit City totaled $207.3 million dollars and by the end of the year shares in the company were down 28.7%, a new 52 week low. Meanwhile Best Buy (the largest consumer electronics retailer in the country) profits in the third quarter were up more than 50%.

Many people believe that firing the top performing salespeople was a factor that helped lower sales.

How M9 Can Help

M9 Web Development Corporation can help businesses deal with the upcoming skills shortage by designing websites with interactive job application pages and by generating content designed to attract the right people, right now!

Workers across Canada are facing increasingly high levels of stress which lead to reduced efficiency and productivity. According to a survey by Desjardins Financial Security (conducted by SOM Surveys, Opinion Polls and Marketing and involving 1,594 interviews in February and March of 2008) 42% of Canadian workers went to work sick or exhausted at least once in 2007. The reasons why the employees came in sick varied but included the necessity to deal with deadlines and not being able to miss the income.

Additionally 90% of the respondents believed that the incidence of stress-related problems such as burn-out and anxiety were increasing. And the cost of these problems shows up on the bottom line of businesses very quickly, according to some studies, stress in the workplace costs Canadian businesses 30 billion dollars a year.

According to a Health Canada report from 2000 the costs show up in:

• Higher benefit payouts
• Higher absenteeism
• Lower efficiency
• Lower productivity
• Less creativity
• Less competitiveness
• Less client/consumer satisfaction
• Higher injury rates
• Higher property damage rates

Source: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/occup-travail/stress-part-1/foreword-avant_propos_e.html

And the situation is not unique to Canada. Bangalore, which is India's tech and IT capital, has experienced unprecedented economic growth over the past few years. It also suffers from a suicide rate almost three times as high as the national average and stress-related diseases and problems are endemic amongst its populace.

Dealing with Stress

According to the American Psychological Association's Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program (APAPHWP) there are five categories that contribute to a healthy workplace. These include:

• Employment Involvement
• Work-Life Balance
• Employee Growth and Development
• Health and Safety
• Employee Recognition

More information on this program can be found at the APAPHWP website: http://www.phwa.org/resources/creating_a_healthy_workplace.php.

Basically work place stress can be reduced by involving employees in work decisions, acknowledging that employees have lives outside of work, making sure employees have opportunities to learn and develop their skills (if they want), making sure that the workplace is safe and making sure that compensation (monetary and benefits) is reasonable and appropriate.

This summer gas for your car in Manitoba will probably reach $1.50 a liter in many parts of southern Manitoba while long-term forecasts are equally gloomy. According to Jeffrey Rubin, the chief economist and strategist with the CIBC, gas will reach $2.25 a liter by 2012. However there are things that drivers can do to reduce the cost of driving:

• Replace air filters - replacing dirty air filters can improve gas mileage by up to 10%. These filters can get clogged which reduces the efficiency of the engine.
• Maintain speed limit - mileage drops when your vehicle is traveling above 100 kmh. Using cruise control makes this easy to achieve
• Watch your tires - keeping your tires properly inflated will improve your gas mileage by up to 3%. Check the specifications of your personal vehicle and check the inflation regularly.
• Watch the oil - using the right grade of oil can improve your gas mileage. Check the owners' manual.
• Keep your car tuned up - this will generally improve the efficiency of the engine. It will also allow you to identify and fix problems before they occur.
• Drive reasonably - avoid sudden braking and acceleration as both of those actions waste fuel. Drive at a steady speed and avoid
• Avoid idling - allowing your car to idle for more than a minute is wasteful.
• Avoid overloading - depending on the vehicle type carrying extra weight can reduce your mileage by several percentage points.

Starting on May 1, 2008 temporary collection points will be established across Manitoba to accept broken or otherwise unusable electronic items for recycling. Domestic items such as TV's, cell phones and computers can all be dropped off, free of charge, for proper disposal. These items, which normally end up in landfills, take up huge amounts of space and are also the source of many toxic pollutants such as Antimony trioxide, Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Cobalt, Lead, Mercury, polybromiated flame retardants and Selenium (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3541623.stm).

In 2007 this program collected thirty trailer truck loads of electronic waste which were recycled at the Sims Recycling Plant located in Brampton, Ontario. This waste included computers (regular and laptop), copiers, fax machines, microwaves, monitors, phones, rechargeable batteries, scanners, stereos, TVs and VCRs.

This year so far there are four collection depots in Winnipeg:

• Computers for Schools at 170 Wyatt Road
• Miller Environmental at 1803 Hekla Avenue
• Syrotech Industries at 93 Gomez Street
• CR Computers at 24-2077 Pembina Highway

In addition there are at least fifteen more collection sites being established around the province in communities as distant as Thompson and Morden.

Although currently the program only accepts domestic electronic waste there are plans in the work to establish sites to accept commercial waste as well. More information about the program can be found at www.greenmanitoba.ca or by phoning 1-866-460-3118.