According to the EmployerOne survey, for the first time in its 5 year history, Chatham-Kent has boasted growth in jobs. Kristy Jacobs from the Workforce Planning Board at the Municipality of Chatham-Kent enlightened us about job prospects in C-K, in addition to unique trends that employers have here.
The EmployerOne survey is conducted in 8 out of 9 boards in Western Ontario. It is conducted annually in January. As of the most recent survey, they were able to connect with 282 employers in C-K, which represents 8% of all employers here. The board is ideally hoping to connect with at least 12% of employers. Interestingly enough, the current survey was able to collect 1 survey from Erieau, 2 in Merlin, and 25 in Wallaceburg.
Those 282 employers represent 29,167 employees, of which 73% are full time. 77% of these employers had new hires equating to 3101 new hires. Unfortunately, 51% of employers had a hard time filling positions citing such reasons as lack of qualifications, not enough applicants or no applications received.
The top 5 in-demand skills for employers in Chatham-Kent include Attendance, Teamwork/Independence, Self-Motivation, Dependability and Work Ethic.
Something of note, is that out of the 8 Western Ontario Boards who conducted the EmployerOne survey, we're the only region who still lists word of mouth as a way to reach job candidates.
Any students interested in summer jobs are welcome to attend the Youth Job Fair hosted at Studio One at the Cultural Centre on May 1st. Please click here for a link to the Facebook event page.
There's an old adage that it takes a village to raise a child, and that's also true for Roses for Rotary.
John Schinkel had a wonderful morning delivering roses with volunteers from Community Living and he has already extended them a welcome for next year. He and Linda Goldsmith were awarded gold medals for their diligent work as co-chairs. Additionally, Margaret Campbell was awarded a Golden Rose for her dedicated work with her partner Doug on managing orders, and all around data management. It was joked that Margaret didn't accept her partner's offer for dinner out that night, as a full stomach would have ruined a good wine buzz.
Funniest Delivery Stories were awarded to Doug & Linda Goldsmith, and the team of Ruth Howell & Scott Burke. Best Team Player was awarded to Roger McRae for always asking how people's deliveries went. And lastly, Doug Swant was awarded with Most Forgiving Seller as he passed along a dozen roses to be delivered in Blenheim to Kelley, and the napkin with the delivery address written on it, pulled a sock in a dryer magic trick in her purse (it was never to be seen again). Doug graciously passed his wife's roses onto his customer in Blenheim.
April 8th, 2014
Congratulations are in order for Rotarian Ron Coristine, left in the grey, Executive Director of Community Living Chatham-Kent for accepting Corporate Citizen of the Year on behalf of his organization. The event his organization was honoured at was the 131st Chatham-Kent Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards.
As Doug's last e-mail update (Friday, April 8th), the following dates were available.
Friday, June 28th
10pm-Midnight
(1 person needed)
RYLA was held this past weekend in Fenton, Michigan. Our club sponsored quite a few students from CKSS to attend, and Rotarian Danielle Hunter traveled to Michigan act as a Rotarian chaperone. There were 103 students who attended, including 12 from Chatham-Kent. Below are a selection of pictures from the weekend.
CKSS student Ella ready to take on the Creek Freak Zipline as a part of her RYLA leadership training.
DGE Sparky's SUV was named this weekend at District Assembly held at Walsh College in Troy, Michigan, and shall be now known as "Spark Plug".
Rotarians Ken & Sue Bechard attended this weekend's District Assembly along with Danielle Hunter (pictured in Spark Plug). Ken is the incoming District Youth Exchange Co-chair and lead a breakout session on this topic.