Manpower Q2 2009 Employment Outlook

Manpower’s released their employment outlook survey for 2009 Q2, and, well, could be better, could be worse.  Seasonally-adjusted employment outlook shows little growth, and Toronto seems not to be bucking the trend (although we are at least not radically worse than the trend).  Ottawa and the public administration sector are good places to be, apparently.

So, basically, if you’re looking for a job right now, they’re definitely still out there, but it’s not a booming market and it sounds like it’s not going to get a lot better over the next three months.

Hang on to your hats.

Hiring Outlook

Manpower conducts regular, extensive, forward-looking hiring surveys all over the globe every quarter, and in light of the economic events, their results are of interest.  The Toronto Star had two articles on the hiring outlook recently using their survey results.  Manpower Canada suggests that the hiring outlook is ‘mild’ and ‘hopeful’ going into the new year: 

The survey of 1,800 Canadian employers indicates 16 per cent expect to increase payrolls in the first quarter of 2009 while nine per cent anticipate cutbacks. Seventy-two per cent said they expected no change and three per cent were uncertain of their near-term staffing intentions.

After accounting for seasonal variations, Manpower said 18 per cent more employers plan to add workers than expect to cut back – four percentage points more than in the current quarter, “indicating a hopeful hiring climate for the first quarter of 2009.”

Unfortunately, they also imply that the hopeful conditions exist primarily outside of Ontario, which will have a “quiet” period.  It’s also true that the way the results are divided is not easily parseable for the technical job market, so it’s useful more on the overall job market than it is for any particular skillset.  The other article implies that in American hiring, the “wait and see” approach will dominate.  The full Manpower Survey results are also available online.

How Am I Doing?

Now that WordPress integrates into PollDaddy, it’s time to get some feedback.

Toronto Tech Jobs: JobCamp

I’ve been wondering about the feasibility of what I’ve been mentally calling “JobCamp”.  It wouldn’t be an UnConference so much as an UnJobFair — take some organizations looking for employees and some technology workers considering new employment, and see if they can be matched up into little groups that would periodically meet.

The potential employers could talk a little about their company, the opportunities available, what they’re looking for and how they’re unique.  The potential employees could talk a little about the kind of experience they have, what kinds of work they’re looking for and how they can add value.  If and when connections form, the potential employer and potential employee could have a more detailed conversation, either in that same event or in separate meetings they could arrange there.

Seems like something that could work, given the right combination of scale and suitable matching up front, so I’m curious.  I’ve put together a little survey on the subject, and if this interests you either as an employee or an employer, I’d be happy if you’d answer the survey.

Red Canary – Salary Survey

Red Canary has posted the results of their 2007-2008 Salary Survey.  It’s nice to see that there’s still some room to grow.  The numbers are higher than I expected based on jobs and interviews, which makes me believe that the results aren’t as clearly divided by title as I might like.  Still, it’s interesting, and it gives me hope that there’s still some room above my current compensation, somewhere.

While you’re there, why not contribute to next year’s?

Survey: Little Bites – Digest or One-at-a-Time?

When I’ve got a bunch of postings on which I’d like to make minor comments but not do the full treatment, I currently batch these up in a Little Bites posting.  Over time, I’ve wondered which would be better:

• individual very-small posts which would allow you to look at them as they come, and track them individually, get unique tags, etc.
• batched digests to reduce the overall volume when each one is small (what I do now)

I’m open to either approach, so if you’re following regularly, just lemme know which you prefer.