Earlier articles in this publication have discussed the effects of retiring baby boomers, shrinking unemployment and other factors contributing to an effect that most North American employers are experiencing: It's tough to get enough qualified applicants to fill the jobs we have open.

Calendar year 2005 saw over two million more jobs (net) than we had at the end of 2004! November's net job increase of more than 300,000 was the largest since the spring of 2004.

Manufacturing, long a sore spot in the job figures, even added 18,000 net jobs in December of 2005!

The tightening supply of workers to fill these new positions was reflected in the unemployment rate dropping to 4.9 percent in December, and in a steady rise in average wages, to over $16 per hour. Continuing the trend, January of this year saw a net increase of 193,000 new jobs and unemployment continued to drop, to a four-year low of 4.7 percent.

Meanwhile, our increasingly service and profession-dominated economy further penalized those with less education: Unemployment rose to 7.5 percent among those with less than a high school diploma by the end of the year. (Compare that with a rate of only 2.2 percent unemployment for those with a college degree.) The outlook for 2006, according to most analysts, is for a slight slowing of job growth compared to 2005. Lower consumer confidence, less new construction and higher fuel prices are all expected to play a role in the slowdown.

If you're a jobseeker, this all bodes well for your future. If you're an employer, you'd be well-advised to come up with a strategy for maintaining or growing your profits in a tighter job market where candidates expect more money and simply "filling the holes" may be more challenging.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce tempered its forecast with a general warning: Businesses are facing an "accumulating burden of rising health care, retirement and energy costs. Restrictive immigration and visa policies, along with inadequate education and training, have tightened the supply of qualified workers."

AS THE LABOUR POOL SHRINKS: MANUFACTURING SUFFERS SHORTAGES

The National Association of Manufacturers says, "Eighty-three percent of U.S. manufacturing companies can't find enough skilled workers to remain productive, with nearly 90 percent reporting a 'moderate or severe shortage' of machinists, operators, craft workers, distributors, technicians and other workers."

The continuing long-term decline in manufacturing jobs in North America combines with competition from other countries to conjure up images of a whole continent with very little manufacturing base. Even Mexico is losing manufacturing jobs to Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, India, Russia and China continue to out produce North America in college graduates, adding to competitive pressures for business.

So far, better productivity has helped the U.S. and Canada maintain an advantage, but January's statistics showed a drop in productivity and manufacturing efficiency, both an alarming reversal of a long-term trend.

SO, YOU DON'T SCREEN EXECUTIVES FOR INTEGRITY?

I'm always intrigued when a client decides to use the Step One Survey II™ to pre-screen lower-level employees for honesty-integrity issues and then exempts management or executive candidates from the same screening. The rationale usually goes something like this: "Executive candidates are already so thoroughly vetted, the assessment would be redundant." Or, alternately, they may reason, "Executive candidates would be offended by the questions on this assessment."

Fraudsters hit small business: Shareholders at risk: As much as 6% of revenue is lost each year

It was almost the perfect crime.

In the late 1990s, the chief executive of an Ontario manufacturer with annual sales of $60-million brought in an outside forensic team to go over the books.

The alert CEO was concerned about the company's accounting -- with good reason. It turned out the company's chief financial officer, who also happened to oversee all information technology systems at the company, had been electronically siphoning funds for the past five years. 

Had an external financial audit not taken place, she might still be building her little nest egg, which investigators calculate reached close to $5-million before she was finally caught. 

Corporate fraud such as this is so rampant across North America, it is estimated as much as 6% of a company's annual revenues will be lost to inside and outside crooks skilled in corruption, embezzlement and misappropriation of assets.

Was this executive pre-screened for honesty and integrity before she was hired?

Probably not.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, a U.S.-based organization with nine chapters across Canada, estimates the majority of perpetrators get away with pilfering for at least 18 months and small businesses are the most vulnerable to occupation fraud and abuse.

Bookkeeper gets one year for skimming $180,000

EDMONTON - Former bookkeeper Anne Grete Taje, who admitted to taking more than $180,000 from her employer -- at first to cover rent, but later for luxuries like Oilers' season tickets -- was sentenced to one year in jail. (Edmonton Journal)

Ottawa Senators' owner named in insider trading probe

OTTAWA - Biovail Corp. revealed yesterday that regulators are probing insider stock sales that may have benefited Eugene Melnyk, the company chairman and owner of the Ottawa Senators.  (Ottawa Citizen)   

RCMP accuse former senior exec of $28M fraud

HAMILTON - The RCMP have charged a former senior executive of Philip Services Corp. with defrauding the recycler and environmental services company of about $28 million, the latest twist for the former Hamilton firm that has been embroiled for years in accounting fraud allegations.  (CTV)

Corrections worker fired

REGINA - A female Corrections and Public Safety employee in La Ronge was fired Friday in connection with $25,000 that has gone astray.   Nearly $2 million has been misappropriated in unrelated cases.  (Leader Post)

Lac La Biche mayor charged with theft of gas

EDMONTON - Lac La Biche's troubled civic administration sustained yet-another black eye this week when Mayor Tom Lett was charged with theft over $5,000. (Edmonton Journal)

Doug Cooper had the No. 1 reserved parking spot at the casino, despite an annual salary of less than $50,000. He had earned the privileged location by losing an exorbitant amount of money — almost $1.5 million — in less than three years.

The casino had given him its most prestigious loyalty card, allowing him to earn points toward free meals, drinks and other privileges; the more he gambled, the higher the privileges. His use of the card allowed the casino to track his gaming preferences and his wins and losses. Although the casino knew he worked at the middle management level of a financial institution in Vancouver, it never questioned how he obtained the large sums he wagered and lost on a weekly basis. Nor did it inquire whether he had a gambling addiction. He was the ideal customer, one who played frequently and regularly lost more than he won.

He was also a fraudster, who funded his compulsive gambling habit by stealing from clients at the financial institution where he worked.

Six months ago, this feature covered the story of an award-winning Sheraton property's decision to rework their hiring process and include the use of the Step One Survey II™ as an integral part of their pre-hire screening. In their first six months of use, the property cut their 30-day and 60-day new hire failure rates by about 33 percent, to levels of 14 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Now, they have a full year of experience in using the assessment program and the statistics are even more impressive as shown in the graph below. From their baseline 30-day rate of 22 percent, they have reduced 30-day failures to just 6 percent! The decline in the 60-day rate is as impressive, from 28 percent to 11 percent!

In the hospitality industry, early hire failure makes up the biggest part of total annual turnover, and also the most expensive part. Consider the expense of recruiting, hiring, training and losing employees before they ever really become productive!

In this operation, hiring around 90 new employees in a year, this means a decrease of 25 new hires. A very conservative estimate of $2,500 per failed new hire shows the program is saving them $62,000 per year! The entire year's expense for the program was $7,650, so they are enjoying a return on investment of over eight dollars for every dollar invested. Over time, the return has increased. It is expected to continue increasing into the second year of this simple and effective program.

ASSESSMENTS CONSISTENTLY REDUCE FAILURES
The table below illustrates the effects of using the Step One Survey II™ assessment in hiring in five very different hospitality properties. Results and ROI* are consistently positive.