The campaign, which is the biggest recruitment drive managed by the Public Service Commission, kicks off this week as hiring in the public service slumps and the workforce shrinks to its smallest size in nearly a decade.
Students are the non-permanent workers least affected by the slowdown and are still in demand by departments for summer jobs, to fill in for employees on vacation, to help manage backlogs or to do any other jobs that need to be done a few hours a week. They are the cheapest of temporary workers and are paid hourly depending on their educational level and year of study.
Last year, student hires dipped about five per cent, but they accounted for one-third of all hiring. The government placed 8,300 students last year through its largest student program, the Federal Student Work Experience Program. The government also hired 4,800 students for its co-op and research affiliate programs.
Overall hiring in the public service is down 10.3 per cent. The biggest decrease is for permanent, full-time employees which fell more than 26 per cent.
The hiring of casual employees is still the main type of hiring, but it has fallen significantly. Student hiring slowed the least and the commission expects departments will probably hire as many this year as it did last year.
“The rate of appointments we saw this past year should be close to the same ... for the coming year. There are definite opportunities for students,” said Joanne Lalonde, director-general of the PSC’s client services.
The government has been hiring students since the 1900s and typically places about 9,000 a year. Some of this year’s job postings include summer stints as border guards, tour guides at Vimy Ridge and crew members on the Coast Guard’s rescue service.
Lalonde said the student program also “showcases” the wide variety of jobs and careers available in the public service. About five per cent of the people who landed permanent jobs last year had previously been students.
The commission’s other major recruitment campaign — for new university or college graduates — was significantly scaled back this year compared to most of the past decade when departments hired thousands of new graduates year to replace retiring baby boomers.
This post-secondary campaign will be much smaller this year and “highly-targeted” at skill shortages and key entry-level positions. Last year about 835 post-secondary recruits were hired.
But senior bureaucrats argue departments must keep hiring to avoid a repeat of the Liberals’ massive downsizing in the 1990s when hiring full-time workers all but stopped and the public service was left with big age, skill and occupational gaps.
Departments have yet to feel the full brunt of the cuts but restraint has already shifted the composition of the public service to a predominantly full-time, permanent workforce. For the first time, 90 per cent of employees are permanent and full-time.
Before the downsizing, permanent employees accounted for between 82 and 85 per cent and the rest were a mix of term, casual and student employees, which gave departments the wiggle room to shrink and grow with work demands and to bring in specialists when needed.
Term and casual employees, however, were the first departments let go as they prepared for the 2012 budget cuts.
In her first report, PSC president Anne-Marie Robinson said the commission expects most hiring over the next few years will come from the priority list, especially among the growing number of surplus and laid off workers who want jobs to continue working in the public service.
“An inflow of new leadership, ideas and energy should be maintained in times of restraint and student hiring takes on even greater importance in this content,” she said in her report.
“The public service will also need to conduct targeted recruitment to ensure the public service of the future constitutes a skilled workforce that can deliver results for Canadians.”
Departments can’t hire term or permanent employees without first checking the priority list to see if anyone qualifies for jobs they want filled. In fact, they must get a “clearance number” to show they have checked the list. Departments, however, don’t have to seek priority clearance when hiring temporary workers such as students.
The number of people on that priority list has been inching up since the Conservatives announced its $5.2 billion spending cuts and the elimination of 19,200 jobs. There are now about 2,745.
The number of public servants declared surplus or laid off on the list is growing steadily. These employees, who are typically experienced, have first dibs on any vacant jobs.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: KATHRYN MAY
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