Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER June 2, 2014 June 2, 2014 2 NEWS NEWS Recent stories posted on www.hrreporter.com. Check the website daily for quick news hits from across Canada and around the world. WEB O N T H E hrreporter.com FEATURED VIDEO COMPENSATION (416) 498-7800 ext. 141 www.resourcecorporation.com Compensation Surveys Incentive Programs Job Descriptions Job Evaluation Pay Equity Performance Appraisal Salary Administration Sales Compensation CONSULTING 'Shortcomings, limitations' 'Shortcomings, limitations' to StatsCan job numbers: Audit to StatsCan job numbers: Audit Report highlights need for better data around job vacancies Report highlights need for better data around job vacancies BY SARAH DOBSON WITH ALL THE talk about la- bour shortages and misuse of temporary foreign workers, you would hope Statistics Canada has the numbers to provide an accu- rate picture — but maybe not. e Offi ce of the Auditor Gen- eral of Canada has released a report suggesting there are gaps and limitations when it comes to key statistical data released by the agency, such as the Labour Force Survey, the Survey of Employ- ment, Payrolls and Hours , the National Household Survey and the Consumer Price Index. In particular, Statistics Canada is not meeting the need for data from small geographic areas and subpopulations in specifi c loca- tions, said the audit. For example, results for the payroll survey are only released at the national, pro- vincial and territorial levels — not the municipal level — so the data on job vacancies has limitations. "For vacancies reported at the national, provincial and territo- rial level, it is not possible to de- termine where in a province or territory these job vacancies are located. For example, reported job vacancies in Alberta could be in Fort McMurray, Grande Prai- rie, Medicine Hat or any other community in the province," said auditor general Michael Ferguson in his report. In addition, the survey ques- tionnaire allows for limited classi- fi cation of types of workplace, but not types of occupations within those workplaces. For example, job vacancies counted under the "Professional, Scientifi c and Tech- nical Services" industry classifi ca- tion could include jobs in adver- tising, legal services, architecture and biotechnology research. "Users informed us that, as a re- sult of these shortcomings, avail- able information on job vacancies is of limited value," said the audit. In response, the agency said it has initiated a more extensive dialogue with regional and local governments and agencies, the private sector and non-govern- mental organizations on how their needs can be met — within the constraints of available resources. "Due to the high cost of pro- ducing small area and small pop- ulation data from surveys, most surveys are necessarily designed to produce data at the national, provincial and territorial levels. Statistics Canada continues to ex- plore and use alternative sources to provide small area information, in particular, through an increased use of administrative data." e agency is also exploring "innovative methods" to produce small area estimates, it said, using surveys or combining them with other sources of information to enrich the information provided through ongoing programs. It's really important to have the information broken down further, said Angella MacEwen, senior economist at the Canadian La- bour Congress in Ottawa. "The sample size isn't big enough, let alone at the city level, so we have no information at the municipal level of what job vacan- cies are." It would also be good to know hard-to-fi ll vacancies, she said. "If those job vacancies are hard to fi ll, they're taking a long time to fi ll... we want to know why and what we can do address that. at's a problem and we want to know about problems," said MacEwen. "Employers know that they're having a problem but they don't know why and the only thing they can see to address that problem is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program — they don't have in place any other solutions for that because we don't have the data to do analysis of the problem." With an aging workforce, there will be a demographic crunch so people want to prepare for that and have a better idea of what's going on in terms of trends and dynamics, she said. "Statistics Canada is doing the best job they can with the resourc- es they have, but the cuts have been pretty devastating and we're starting to notice the impact." e agency is well-respected in other countries, according to Pe- dro Antunes, deputy chief econo- mist at the Conference Board of Canada in Ottawa. " ey do things very carefully, they're very meticulous and, with- in certain budgets, I think they're doing what they can, and often they won't present data because they don't feel that it stands up to statistical scrutiny." But with the labour market tightening, it would be nice to have better surveys and better data, he said. "Of course, all of those come with costs." And we've been a bit slow in ral- lying the case for it, said Antunes. "We're seeing labour force growth that is shrinking. Essen- tially, that's due to the baby boom- er cohort exiting the market, and that's set up and left us in a diffi - cult situation than we had in the '80s or '90s or early 2000s, so this is why we haven't really planned for this problem very well on the statistics side," he said. "If there's a problem, it's that we didn't really plan for the is- sue of tightening labour markets or the challenges of very diver- gent growth across regions and across industry sectors, and cer- tainly we've seen that in the last decade. So there are spots where labour markets are fairly loose still and there are spots where la- bour markets are very, very tight and employers are desperate for workers." ese kinds of statistics could help HR know if their recruit- ment problems relate more to their firm's unique experience or to the economy or industry- wide factors, according to Helen Lam, a professor of human re- source management at Athabasca University. "Unemployment and job va- cancy information can be helpful for HR professionals to justify to the organization the challenges in hiring the right talents in tight labour markets and the need to review the appropriate compen- sation package." In looking at the research front, BROAD > pg. 8 "Employers know they're having a problem but they don't know why, and the only thing they can see to address that is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program." ACROSS CANADA Credit: Mark Blinch (Reuters) Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is critical of a plan by provincial Tories to drastically slash the number of public sector jobs. Ontario Liberals, NDP attack PC plan to cut 100,000 public sector jobs Wynne says PC plan means fewer fi refi ghters, nurses, teachers Alberta jobs minister, labour leader fi nd common ground on foreign workers issue Both want workers to become permanent residents Canada set to introduce new temporary foreign worker rules: Report Employers could be required to pay more Low interest rates a challenge for pension funds: Bank of Canada Warns that rates likely to stay low for an extended period AROUND THE WORLD 8 suspects in custody after Turkish mining disaster Miners down tools over disaster, union calls for walkout Google plans to disclose number of minorities, women on its payroll Pressure mounting on industry to improve diversity in hiring U.S. fast-food workers go on strike to protest low pay 1-day strike part of campaign for $15-per-hour wages Strategy in times of rapid change Helen Kerr, president of KerrSmith Design, talks about how to navigate periods of uncertainty and change.

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