BC Business
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The forest industry’s in crisis, natural gas prices are plunging through the floor, the sugar high of federal government spending is wearing off, the construction binge of recent years has entered the inevitable hangover stage and the provincial government, with its $2.8-billion deficit, needs to slash the payroll. With the worst recession since the 1930s now heading into a halting, skidding, jobless recovery – at best – it’s hardly surprising that unemployment in B.C. is skyrocketing and – What? Unemployment isn’t skyrocketing? September job-creation numbers were among the best in the developed world, and the provincial rate has dropped to a respectable 7.4 per cent? Er, perhaps another type of article is called for here.
Specifically, what’s called for is an article that looks at who’s hiring and why. With that in mind, we contact several of the companies advertising for employees on, of all places, Craigslist, the category-killer website that increasingly attends to all human needs and wants. During September there prove to be up to 1,000 positions posted daily on the Vancouver site, indicative of an economy that, even if flapping on only one wing, is certainly flapping hard. Further investigation reveals some very distinct trends. While jobs continue to be created, there are no longer enough to go around, and almost every employer enjoys the pick of many applicants. Most report that their respective industries are experiencing tepid conditions at best, yet they themselves are in hiring mode, often dramatically so. All of which suggests a couple of things: individual businesses are often able to transcend an economic downturn and even benefit from it. And Darwin could have been an economist.
Pattern Maker, Arc’teryx >>
Sales Representative, Travellers Deck >>
Assistant Manager, Salt Tasting Room >>
Landscaping Installer, BluePine Enterprises Ltd. >>
Lumber Broker, BPWood >>
Junior Graphic Designer, Nood >>
Blogger, Cymax Stores >>
Hospitality Guide, NBC >>
During a single two-day period in September, Craigslist also offered jobs for:
Young party animals with large social networks who want to make $100 a night promoting products and events at downtown clubs | A certified arborist who can maintain and service chainsaws, climb without spurs and is capable of performing an aerial rescue | A helper to assist a quadriplegic who requires the usual range of assistance plus facility at rolling a certain type of extra-legal cigarette | A man or woman with full-body tattoos to be photographed using a flatbed scanner | An English- and Farsi-speaking female with some knowledge of cooking to host a TV show | A part-time K9 detection handler with vehicle and security licence | Experienced lane closure technicians with the potential to grow and advance | Science specialists of all stripes interested in signing up with an agency offering scientific consulting | An iPhone developer to work on applications and, ultimately, games | A tugboater possessing lots of experience with barge work (submit accident history with resumé) | An instructor of in-line skating | An outgoing and animated person with costumed character experience to act as a well-known cartoon character. Please note: “Shy will not work with this job!”
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Garment manufacturing as a growth industry is a concept that’s hard to wrap the mind around, but North Vancouver-based Arc’teryx currently employs more than 400 people in the Lower Mainland. The company, which was founded by local outdoor enthusiasts, supplies such outlets as Mountain Equipment Co-op with high-end technical gear and increasingly relies on contracts with law enforcement and military organizations, including the Canadian army.
Human resource generalist Sean McGillen will receive about 60 applications for this highly specialized, intermediate job. The garment industry is surprisingly healthy – possibly even growing – in the Vancouver area, thanks to Lululemon and outdoor activity companies such as Suguoi, Arson and Westbeach, which carry on at least a portion of their manufacturing in Canada. Still, McGillen says, it isn’t always easy finding people qualified to produce the military-grade clothing Arc’teryx increasingly specializes in. He will interview only nine people for the position, which he fills without trouble. [pagebreak]
Vancouver-based Travellers Deck is a startup that will compete against coupon books and tourist guides. Brenda Ee Kwan was working as a real estate project marketer when the sudden downturn last summer presented the opportunity to switch to something more in keeping with her passion for food. She and her marketing team identified 100 shops and restaurants, mostly proprietor-run, that they felt comfortable recommending and that were also willing to provide discounts. Information about each is printed on a card contained within a deck that goes on sale in November at numerous outlets, including London Drugs and IGA.
With 650,000 decks printed and a business plan that requires selling 500,000 of those, Kwan says Travellers Deck needs two reps to find additional sales streams, including hotels, concierges, retailers, conventions and group promotions such as companies and law firms that might use them as seasonal gifts. Her Craigslist ad generates about 60 resumés. She expects to interview at least eight respondents and anticipates little trouble in making her hires. [pagebreak]
Salt Tasting Room launched in 2006 with a novel theme, charcuterie, and a sketchy location in Gastown’s Blood Alley, on the edge of the Downtown Eastside. It became an instant critical favourite and has matured into something of a Vancouver institution, with up to 1,000 people a week coming through the door, according to general manager Kurtis Kolt. With its lower price point of about $15 per person – $30 with a flight of wine – Salt’s business was barely affected by the recession; the ongoing gentrification of Gastown and the Downtown Eastside, punctuated by the recent completion of the mammoth Woodward’s project, has also helped. Sometime in January, Salt is slated to expand with an offshoot tapas bar a couple of doors down.
Employee turnover has been negligible, but in September Kolt finds himself looking for two servers and an assistant manager. As well, he has to start thinking about the Olympics, when the restaurant will host a number of special events. Fortunately, he receives around 150 responses for each of the server jobs and anticipates no problem filling them. The assistant manager position generates more than 60 resumés, including about 20 that are roughly on target and a half-dozen or so that Kolt expects to interview. The best fits tend to come from two areas: candidates looking to escape similar positions at larger, more corporate operations and people working in the wine agency business, which is experiencing shrinkage and consolidation. Salt has a highly evolved wine program requiring specialized knowledge, so for the Olympics Kolt is calling in industry friends and former employees, including two who will temporarily relocate from New York City and San Francisco. [pagebreak]
Despite slower times in the development industry, growth has been rapid at this Surrey-based landscaping firm, which employs around 120 people, up about 20 from this time last year. Blue Pine is a young and growing company, still picking up market share, explains president Mike Lalonde, but it is also benefiting from decisions by institutional and commercial developers to flick the switch on projects that didn’t make economic sense during the boom, when costs were 10 to 20 per cent higher.
Blue Pine will have no problem filling this position or any others it advertises for, says Lalonde. The company currently receives around 100 resumés a week – 20 per cent of those from out of the province – compared to 10 or fewer last year. [pagebreak]
A longtime lumber brokerage employee and contractor, Paul Bouchard has been gradually building up his own company, Kelowna-based BPWood, and is currently in expansion mode as the industry contracts and transforms. In the evolving environment, fewer agents and middlemen are required, yet consumers and producers do not always understand each other, which creates a niche for Bouchard’s company as a new type of market facilitator. He is especially attuned to China’s growing role as a major market for B.C. wood.
In creating this position, Bouchard says he is looking to replace himself as the company’s primary “rainmaker and treadmill runner,” so that he can ultimately shift to a more chairman-like role. He expects the successful candidate will likely be someone in his or her 30s who is currently working for a large lumber brokerage and looking for a new opportunity. Asian experience and facility with the language would be an asset. In the first few days after posting his ad, Bouchard receives several resumés, with some very good prospects. [pagebreak]
New Zealand furniture and housewares retailer Nood chose Vancouver for its North American head office a year and a half ago and now, after opening four stores in Metro Vancouver and one in Victoria, it has planned a rapid expansion across Canada and ultimately into the U.S. Despite lukewarm performance for the sector, the company’s aggressively styled and priced wares are selling well, largely because fashions are shifting away from the period styles popular for the past three decades and toward a modernist feel in keeping with sustainability concerns and contemporary ways of life. The firm employs about 75 people in Vancouver, and retail operations manager Chris Storey says he expects continued growth in head office employment.
Nood already has a senior designer on staff but needs extra help due to the quantity of advertising and marketing material required. The timing proves to be excellent. With revenues for media and marketing industries down 20 per cent or more continent-wide, Storey says he receives many excellent applications. Indeed, he has had no trouble filling several dozen positions this year, a situation he attributes at least partly to the slack economy. [pagebreak]
Arash Fasihi had seven years at Future Shop under his belt when he and his wife launched e-tailer Cymax Stores in 2003. Up and running by 2004, Vancouver-based Cymax sold $2-million worth of furniture and audio-visual equipment that year, primarily in the U.S., where 99 per cent of the company’s sales continue to originate. By 2008 Cymax was grossing $51 million, and in 2010 sales are projected to reach $110 million, thanks in part to a growing presence in Canada, which is expected to account for about seven per cent of revenues. The company sources products from U.S. manufacturers and arranges to have them shipped directly to its web customers, eliminating the need for wholesalers or even warehousing (although it does maintain a small facility in Virginia). At press time it was slated to open its first brick and mortar store, baby and maternity boutique Lusso Baby, in North Vancouver in October.
Cymax is looking for someone to enliven its website with content that adds detail, interest and context to the product offering and encourages customers to engage in conversation. Within three weeks of posting, human resources manager Martine Sallenbach receives about 75 applications (the ad was deleted by third parties a half-dozen times – likely, she thinks, to prevent others from applying). Most applicants are poorly qualified and a significant proportion come from offshore residents looking for contract work, but about 20 per cent (a typical proportion) are worth considering, and Sallenbach anticipates the position will be easily filled. The company, which employs about 110 people and expects to add considerably to its workforce in the months to come, is able to do almost all of its hiring through Craigslist, but, says Sallenbach, they ran into unexpected difficulties finding retail associates for the new baby store. [pagebreak]
The official U.S. television carrier of the Olympics has advertised hundreds of Vancouver-based positions over the summer and fall, many beginning months before the Games and ending weeks after.
Several hospitality guides are being sought to meet and greet, cater to and generally fulfill the whims of 1,600 guests – primarily NBC executives and clients – who will arrive in four waves over the course of the Games. NBC cannot be reached for comment on how many applications it has received for its postings, but several jobs have been removed from the company’s website, presumably because they were successfully filled. These include numerous security personnel, perhaps indicating that the estimated $1-billion security bill for the Games (most dispensed in the form of wages) may be even higher when third-party employers are taken into account. Also gone is a job that only a Canadian could love: a researcher position suitable for someone possessing an intimate knowledge of international hockey and curling.