Some Companies Still Hiring Despite The Recession

Job postings are a rare sight in a recession but experts say there is still work to be found in this rising sea of layoffs if you have the right skills and know where to look.

Even as Statistics Canada is set to report another expected jump in Canada’s February unemployment rate Friday – up from 7.2 per cent at the end of January – some job categories are proving more immune to the fallout.

In January, the Canadian economy lost 129,000 jobs, its worst monthly performance in at least three decades. That meant Canada shed 213,000 jobs since November, mainly in construction, manufacturing, forestry, resources and transportation.

Yet, there was also hiring, with 31,000 jobs added to the health care and social services sectors in February alone.

These so-called “recession-proof jobs” in education, health care and the public service are considered essential services in any economy. Engineering and construction jobs are also seen to be safer in an economic downturn thanks largely to government stimulus spending on such projects as roads and bridges.

That means even in a recession, Canadians can find jobs if they have the right skills – ranging from financial services to engineering to computer and technology expertise. As well, job growth is still expected this year in some regions of the country such as Saskatchewan and other parts of the western economy.

Across the economy there’s still a lot of specialized hiring happening, including thousands of jobs at BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Lt. (TSX:RIM), which hired 4,000 people last year as its business boomed and plans to add another 3,000 in 2009, expanding its workforce to about 15,000 people.

In addition, there are short-term positions for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and hundreds of new skilled engineers and other workers at Bombardier Aerospace, Canada’s only aircraft maker, which is embarking on a building program for new regional jets.

In Bombardier’s case, the company said last month it will cut 1,360 jobs, or about 4.5 per cent of its workforce, to deal with a drop in orders for business jets. However, it also plans to hire 800 permanent employees for some of its new aircraft projects.

Patrick Sullivan, former president of job-search website Workopolis, said while the company’s job postings were down about 25 per cent from early last fall, “there are lot of people hiring.” He said many companies that have announced layoffs recently such as Bombardier are still posting jobs for what he calls “critical” positions.

For instance, he points to recent postings at Toyota in Canada, despite cuts at its operations in other countries and the woes surrounding the auto sector in general. The Workopolis site also recently showed a handful of jobs available at Sony in Canada despite thousands of cuts announced at that company worldwide in recent months.

“You hear of a lot of companies downsizing. They aren’t downsizing but more restructuring,” said Christian Hasse, a search consultant at headhunting firm Cramer and Company International.

Hasse also said many companies forced to reduce staff because of budget cuts are taking on contract workers because the projects on their plate still need to be completed.

Employers are also noticing the number of applications for their positions skyrocketing, Hasse said.

“There is more supply of people looking for work,” he said.

For instance, B.C.’s Coast Mountain Bus Company is hiring 500 new bus drivers this year, a 15 per cent hike from its current staff of 3,300, as its expands service in the Vancouver area ahead of the Olympics. The company said it has received more than 3,000 applications so far, a record, and is also hiring other positions such as mechanics and supervisors.

Organizers of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games said they are much less worried about not finding enough staff for the positions they need filled leading up to next year’s event.

Donna Wilson, who oversees employment for the organizing committee known as VANOC, said the plan is to double staff in the coming months by hiring about 1,500 to 2,000 people. That is about 100 jobs less than originally planned, after the committee made some budget cutbacks earlier this year as a result of the recession.

Wilson said about 500 of the new jobs will be on a casual, as-needed basis.

“It’s short term, but it’s a good experience for people who are either looking for the first time, or who have been laid off,” Wilson said.

The competition for jobs is expected to heat up as more Canadians find themselves looking for work in this worsening recession.

Scotiabank economist Adrienne Warren is forecasting Canada’s unemployment rate will rise to 7.3 per cent in February, which is a loss of another 60,000 jobs last month. She expects Canada’s unemployment rise to hit 8.5 per cent by the end of 2009.

However, she says professional services jobs, including everyone from lawyers and accountants to auditors and engineers, will likely come out of the recession relatively unscathed. That’s in part because many of their services are in more demand during an economic downturn.

“I think a lot of those high-quality jobs are likely to be in strong demand in the coming year, and in the coming decade,” Warren said.

BMO Capital Markets economist Douglas Porter said while some are arguing the current recession is “the big one, and worse than that,” if you put it into perspective Canada’s economy started this downturn with a much lower unemployment rate than in previous recessions.

He noted Canada’s jobless count was down to 5.8 per cent in January 2008, while the rate was at about 7.3 per cent before the last recession in the early 1990s and about seven per cent in the early 1980s.

One of the sectors preparing for a boom is infrastructure, which will benefit from the billions of dollars in highway, sewer, transit and building projects contained in the latest and past federal budgets.

Montreal-based construction and engineering giant SNC-Lavalin (TSX:SNC) and other companies in the sector, ranging from Aecon Group of Toronto to Edmonton-based Stantec Inc. are preparing for big growth in that area.

Aecon (TSX:ARE), a major builder of roads, highways, bridges, ports, power projects and airports, has an order backlog of more than $1.25 billion on its books. The company recently acquired Lockerbie & Hole of Edmonton to expand in Western Canada’s energy sector.

Stantec (TSX:STN), with more than 10,000 employees, could also be looking to hire engineers with specialized skills as it takes on several upcoming infrastructure developments, ranging from green infrastructure projects, cleanup of contaminated sites and development of border crossings.

SNC-Lavalin, with more than $9 billion in orders on its books at the end of 2008, is growing each year and hopes Canadian universities continue graduating qualified professionals.

“It’s always said that qualified workers are rare but I don’t think that will be the biggest problem,” outgoing CEO Jacques Lamarre said in a recent interview.

“Currently, there are industries that are suffering like pulp and paper and the automobile sector where there is highly qualified technical personnel.”

“So, I don’t think we currently have a labour shortage but we still have to keep an eye on that and make sure that universities keep pumping out young engineers.”