Shall we continue?

The summer has flown by with a very late and shakey warm spell here on the west coast at the end of the traditional summer months.

At 55pluspros, we had a flurry of activity in July and are now back to having no jobs posted. The question I am now asking is - "Shall we continue?" There are almost 3,000 Job Seekers still registered and I know many of them are still looking for just the right opportunity.

I have asked my IT guy to streamline the posting process and the cost to keep the site up and running is minimal but I wonder if there is any point in keeping it going.

If you want to comment and have trouble posting on the blog, you can always contact me at sherryb@55pluspros.ca and we can chat about it.

In the meantime, I think we are all looking forward to a warm and sunny Labour Day weekend.

Sherry

Spring is finally here!

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the long gap between posts but it is hard to keep doing this without any feedback!

The latest information in BC is that the jobless rate has dropped - and that the numbers of job seekers have dropped as well. We sure wouldn't know that at 55pluspros. People are still signing up - almost 2600 are ready to be hired!

Lets see if we can entice the employers to start looking at the older worker with new eyes.

Thanks for hanging in there. Feel free to contact me anytime. Sometimes it helps to talk. However, the site is self-managed and we are not an employment counselling service! I really do believe that we know what we want and are capable of deciding whether a job is right for us. Now all we need are the jobs!

In the meantime, the flowers on the west coast are beautiful and the temperature is warming up across Canada.

All the best,
Sherry

Season's Greetings

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let's hope that 2011 sees a turn-around for all of you who are looking for work and for those employers who are looking for the ideal worker for their business.

I am off to Japan to spend two weeks with my eldest daughter and her family. It will be the first time we have all been together for Christmas for quite a few years. We are all very excited about the prospect. Her eldest son will be joining us from Montreal and has strict instructions to get me safely from Tokyo to Kyoto!

With the new year approaching, I hope to return to a thriving 55pluspros with jobs posted and people joining up.

Enjoy this time in whatever way works for you. We all really have much to be thankful for.

All the best,

Sherry

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Thanksgiving weekend is over and it is my hope that you all were able to find things to be thankful for. I know how hard it is when you have been out of work for a while to take a wider view of life and all the things which make it good. It may be just the beautiful country we live in, our children and grandchildren and our community. Nevertheless, the pain of being unemployed is very real and hard, sometimes, to believe that it will pass.

I'm sure you know that the news on the economic front is not good. Unemployment rates have not moved substantially for months and the forecast is not terribly promising.

Even so, I still think that employers are definitely missing the boat in not hiring mature workers - and I continue to take that message with me as I move around the province.

I am working on a half-time contract position leading a provincial organization (in BC - The BC Association of Community Response Networks - www.bccrns.ca)which supports networks in communities as they develop awareness of and promote the prevention of adult abuse, neglect and self-neglect. It is work which I am totally committed to and I feel very fortunate to have been asked to take this on. So, if you see a notice for a Knowledge Exchange with an invitation to take part in a "Conversation that Matters", do sign up and come and meet me!! We have ten exchanges scheduled around the province over the next 8 months.

And to give you all some hope - I was hired 3 months ago - on my 71st birthday and no one seems to notice - or care!

I would love to hear from you - either on the blog or e-mail me at sherryb@55pluspros.ca. Is there anyone out there????

Take care,

Sherry

Two new jobs posted

On a very wet September Sunday, I am realizing that it is far too long since I posted on the blog. The job postings have been very slow (non-existent!) over the summer but there are now two on the site. While this is a very modest re-start, at least it is something!

It is so hard to imagine why, with almost 2,500 willing and experienced potential employees ready to go to work, that the employers are not beating down the "doors" to come aboard.

A recent article by Derek Sankey in the Vancouver Sun states that "Senior Leadership Skills will be in Demand". The author says that "as Canada's workforce changes over the next decade, demand for the best and the brightest leaders will be 'insatiable".." So what are the employers waiting for??

Let's make this blog a two-way conversation.

Sherry

Are you missing out on seniors' income?

Did you see the article in the Vancouver Sun by Jonathan Chevreau (reprinted from the Financial Post) entitled "Seniors Must Check They Are Not Missing Out"? It describes the various income sources which are available to seniors when they reach 65. 60 is the magic age for qualified Canadians to start receiving Canada Pension Plan premiums.

Take a look at the article and make sure that you or someone near to you is receiving all that they are entitled to. 98% of eligible seniors have signed application forms to receive Old Age Security but the author estimates that 150,000 seniors who should be getting the Guaranteed Income Supplement are not and about 50,000 Canadians eligible for Canada Pension have not applied.

A disproportianate percentage of those missing out are women.

Summer is here....

Summer is here on the west coast and it feels good!



If some of you are wondering about what happened to me over the last few weeks I can tell you that I was heavily involved as a volunteer in the Township of Langley 2010 BC Summer Games. What a ride that was! We had 3,500 athletes and 3,000 volunteers here to give our province's budding Olympians a taste of what is in store for them! By all accounts it was a resounding success! It was also a tremendous amount of work for those of us "behind the scenes".



So why do this when there is no pay? I can tell you that, if you are not employed it is a great way to stay involved, meet people and network. You just never know who might have the perfect job just waiting for you and they won't know that you are available if you don't tell them. It is also a great way to stay connected when you are employed!



I have been volunteering for over 50 years and I can't imagine my life without being connected to my community. Perhaps that is a bit excessive but there are lots of benefits if you give it a try.



I will be posting much more regularly and would love to hear for you out there in "Blog-land"



Sherry