I couldn’t agree more with the lady who wrote the editorial regarding people who are only filling in the blanks on their job search-yes, work is hard to come by, but much harder if you are allowed to stay on the system and there is no followup on your job search. I know the office is pushed to the max as I am employed in an organization where I deal with some of the issues daily, but come on. If you want a job, put some effort into finding one. Why is it that some people are on the system for years whereas others are denied for going to school for example. I have heard , and again,I hope this is not true,that it is all who you know at this office. If this is the case, then shouldn’t something be done to improve and modify this sector. There are programs, there were programs, which entailed a recipient attend for 3 months, and I found out all they had to do was check the job board and sign a sheet stating they had been there. What nonsense, let’s see people trying a little harder and stop making life so darn easy!!!
While I can understand some of your points, about job search requirements and the follow up that is required and such, there are a few underlying little problems here.
Check the Daily news want ads after the editorials and count the help wanted ads there, considering the unemployment rate, there are not too many to look at to begin with!
As for the idea of who you know at the office, well that’s not much different than applying for jobs at places that hire folks that they know, family and friends, etc.
A town with an unemployment rate reportedly heading towards over 20% isn’t exactly one where I think we’re making things so darn easy…
Maybe attract some full time sustainable industry here and create more employment around the place and the problem will resolve itself.
It’s interesting how those with the jobs, are always the ones quickest to offer advice to those that don’t have them. Now if all the letter writers want to offer up their jobs, and check out the job search scene for themselves, I’m sure they’d be quick to take you up on the advice.
Folk need to quit sitting on their thumbs waiting for a job to turn up. They ought to get their shit to crackin’ and move to Oilberta.
Deadwood P.O.S.!!
There is no excuse to be unemployed. If you cant find a job its time to move on to somewhere that you can. Either that or wait for walmart to come and provide you with a great place to work.
As someone who has tried to hire people recently, there is a definate shortage of quality help in this town. We had a help wanted sign up in the store for 2 + weeks and after over 200 resumes were dropped off, a bare minimum of applicants made it through the online screening, and then more of those dropped out after I explained the job description and qualifications to them.
You’d be surprised how many people say they don’t want to work for you anymore after you mention they have to have a criminal records check before they start work 
In my field of work I know we have hired over 10 people in the last 6 weeks and we hire regularly, and they have to go threw a screening prosess as well, a criminal records check is the norm now. but the magority of people who do drop of resumes are on the welfare and want you to sign there paper. they know there not qualified to work, but they need get those signatures to get there next check.
there are jobs out there you might start out at 7 dollers but its better then nothing we all need to start somewhere. I know some people in town are working 3 jobs. and going to school.
I know I would hate to work at job with a quota system.
smartass tell us the type of people who are applying for work there, I see most are under the age of 25 with the exception of one or two people.
Smartass should also know it is illegal to ‘require’ a criminal record check except for a very few chosen fields. You can only ask if they’d ‘be willing’ to submit to one, and can’t actually require someone to fill in a consent form until they’ve made the cut (means that if they have no record they are hired, no more excuses).
Young people get hit with this bullshit all the time, handed a consent form along with their app.
I’m pretty sure everyone applied at Bata just to get the 20% off on BALLA jerseys and probably filled in fake ass information anyway. (like my foreman at my current job).
Even if I was unemployed and had a clean record (which I do) I would tell Bata to go fuck themselves if they wanted a criminal records check to sell shoes.
Anyone looking for a job that loves the outdoors and lots of physical exercise - check the service canada job bank in about the second to last week of December, there are gonna be a few openings, I am quitting my current job to take an electrical apprenticeship down south…
ski season 
get a job where you can set your hours (within reason) like mine 
At least part of the problem in this town is the attitude that a person only needs to work long enough to get the weeks in to collect income assistance. Whole generations of families were raised this way… Make a ton of cash fishing or in the caneries in the summer and then sit back and collect UI the rest of the year.
Mike
and your point is Mike ?, When I logged it was seasonal so I went on E.I, I paid into it, I have for the last 22 years… just like fisherman who pay into it, there’s a reason that seasonal workers pay into E.I…
So who should collect E.I
Do seasonal workers pay more into EI? I doubt that the amount that you pay into EI as a seasonal worker comes anywhere near the amount that you take out of it.
As Eso points out… you don’t pay more as a seasonal employee so you definately draw way more than you ever pay into it. That aside though, my point was that because these people have always worked this way they seem to refuse to do anything else. Look at the cannery workers. The whole industry is collapsing around them and yet there they are… working less and less and complaining more and more that they can’t collect UI. They would rather petition the government to lower the weeks needed than explore other opportunities. And yes, as someone else already pointed out, other opportunitites may actually mean moving to where the jobs are and not waiting for the job to come to them.
I used to work in the cannery. It was pretty damn clear even back then that the industry was doomed.
Mike
Criminal record checks aren’t mandatory to get a job at our company, but I will not hire someone for my staff without one. It’s not like I’m giving everyone who applies a form to go spend $35 to get their record checked, it’s only required of the people I am going to hire, and I ask them during the interview if they would have a problem submitting to one. There is no way in hell I’m going to have a person on my staff, that has before or could steal merchandise and or cash, or have a violent or sexual offender represent us and our store… that’s just not going to happen.
I think after say 5 years of doing the same seasonal work and then collecting EI you should get cut off and forced to get a job at 7-11 in the off season.
My dad was talking about this the other night, by the time he retires he will have paid in over a hundred grand in EI payments, and he’s never claimed a dime. There should be a maximum pay-in on EI that once you hit in your lifetime income total, you dont have to pay in until you put in a claim, so that slack bitches who work one season of the year and do fuck all (or even worse, work under the table) arent being supported by people who work 12 months a year.
smartass, I’m sorry to say this,
but for you people do you know how much a pair of sneakers cost?,
the mark- up on running shoes should be a crime, 500 % mark-up on some. I know thats not your fault smartass, but when your store buys a pair of nikes for 25.00 dollers and then charges 140.00 for them thats criminal.
and in your post smartass makes you sounds like your profiling who should get a criminal record check.
and I qoute
its not your store’s policy but you do it anyway.
Then you must tell them they are hired, subject to a check, and pay for the check yourself. If they refuse permission *after you told them they’re hired subject to * you can terminate them with 0 hours worked.
I know what you’d like to do, 7-11 does the same, but all it will take is ONE person who knows the rules and knows they can sue your ass for more than the job is worth. Just ONE stickler can cost you a tribunal appearance for refusing to hire them even if they have a record for theft from an employer.
If you’re LOOKING for a job, the proper thing to do is inform the employer that even though asking that is a violation, you really want to work for them and will allow it (if they pay). If they want you to pay or submit such a document, write down their name, position, company, location and time and visit the Law Society for some free money…
Everything in this world gets marked up. It’s all a matter of convienence. How about you go make your own shoes from scratch and then you can stop bitching about the markup. I have no control over it, so don’t mention it like I do.
I’m not going to bother talking about the record checks anymore, because there’s no point explaining my company’s policy, nor is there the need. Bottom line is… if you work in retail, you’ll be asked sooner or later to have a criminal record check done. I’d feel safer knowing my employer had nothing to lose by employing me, but that’s just me.
Am I wrong but does it look like smartass and herbie are basically saying the same thing?
It’s the same damn thing! The only difference in the two posts is who pays for it. She tells them during the interview process that they are subject to a check and then if she decides to hire them they asked to get it done. In her initial post she simply states that just the act of her letting them know they will ultimately be subject to a criminal background check seems to cause a lot of people to drop out. Frankly I’m not the least bit surprised.
Mike