OTTAWA — Canada saw more job gains than expected last month, with most gains in the part-time sector and a hefty decline in self-employed individuals.
There were 28,400 more people employed last month, Statistics Canada said Friday. Economists expected employment growth of 15,000.
The unemployment rate for June was 7.4 per cent, unchanged from May as more people jumped into the job hunt.
It was the third-straight month of job gains. There has been just one month of declines in the last nine, and that was a relatively minor loss of 1,500 in March.
“The report provides some encouraging news that labour markets continue to strengthen with the employment gain in June building further on May’s 22,300 increase and the 58,300 surge in April,� said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist with RBC Economics Research.
Craig Alexander, chief economist with TD Economics, said the result were “surprisingly strong, given the recent economic activity data which suggest that Canadian economic growth has slowed.�
There were 3,300 more people working to produce goods in June, while a far greater number — 25,100 — found service work.
There were job gains in transportation and warehousing, declines in professional, scientific and technical services, while most other sectors were relatively unchanged, Statistics Canada said.
Full-time employment grew by 7,300, while a more robust gain of 21,100 was seen in the number of part-time workers.
“While the details of the release may not be as impressive as the sturdy headline gain, there is no denying that the Canadian job market continues to make impressive progress,� said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets.
Porter noted that there has been job gains of 192,000 in the first half of this year, which would be the bulk of the year-to-year employment growth of 238,000 that stood as of last month.
More people were working for others last month, and fewer working for themselves. Public-sector employment grew by 50,700 people in June, private-sector employment was up 21,900, while 44,200 fewer were self-employed.
Emanuella Enenajoran, economist with CIBC World Markets, said this suggests “an improvement in the overall quality of employment,� though she noted that temporary census work was likely responsible for some of the public-sector gains.
Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia saw the strongest job gains in June. There were fewer people employed in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, while the situation was relatively stable in other parts of the country.
Economists, including Enenajoran, Ferley and Porter, said June’s jobs data provide another reason to think the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates later this year.
Twitter.com/derekabma
TABLE
Unemployment percentage rates by province:
Newfoundland and Labrador 12.3
Prince Edward Island 12.0
Nova Scotia 8.7
New Brunswick 9.6
Quebec 7.9
Ontario 7.7
Manitoba 5.5
Saskatchewan 4.9
Alberta 5.6
British Columbia 7.3
Overall 7.4
Source: Statistics Canada
OTTAWA — Canada saw more job gains than expected last month, with most gains in the part-time sector and a hefty decline in self-employed individuals.
There were 28,400 more people employed last month, Statistics Canada said Friday. Economists expected employment growth of 15,000.
The unemployment rate for June was 7.4 per cent, unchanged from May as more people jumped into the job hunt.
It was the third-straight month of job gains. There has been just one month of declines in the last nine, and that was a relatively minor loss of 1,500 in March.
“The report provides some encouraging news that labour markets continue to strengthen with the employment gain in June building further on May’s 22,300 increase and the 58,300 surge in April,” said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist with RBC Economics Research.
Craig Alexander, chief economist with TD Economics, said the result were “surprisingly strong, given the recent economic activity data which suggest that Canadian economic growth has slowed.”
There were 3,300 more people working to produce goods in June, while a far greater number — 25,100 — found service work.
There were job gains in transportation and warehousing, declines in professional, scientific and technical services, while most other sectors were relatively unchanged, Statistics Canada said.
Full-time employment grew by 7,300, while a more robust gain of 21,100 was seen in the number of part-time workers.
“While the details of the release may not be as impressive as the sturdy headline gain, there is no denying that the Canadian job market continues to make impressive progress,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets.
Porter noted that there has been job gains of 192,000 in the first half of this year, which would be the bulk of the year-to-year employment growth of 238,000 that stood as of last month.
More people were working for others last month, and fewer working for themselves. Public-sector employment grew by 50,700 people in June, private-sector employment was up 21,900, while 44,200 fewer were self-employed.
Emanuella Enenajoran, economist with CIBC World Markets, said this suggests “an improvement in the overall quality of employment,” though she noted that temporary census work was likely responsible for some of the public-sector gains.
Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia saw the strongest job gains in June. There were fewer people employed in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, while the situation was relatively stable in other parts of the country.
Economists, including Enenajoran, Ferley and Porter, said June’s jobs data provide another reason to think the Bank of Canada will raise interest rates later this year.
Twitter.com/derekabma
TABLE
Unemployment percentage rates by province:
Newfoundland and Labrador 12.3
Prince Edward Island 12.0
Nova Scotia 8.7
New Brunswick 9.6
Quebec 7.9
Ontario 7.7
Manitoba 5.5
Saskatchewan 4.9
Alberta 5.6
British Columbia 7.3
Overall 7.4
Source: Statistics Canada
Employment rose the most in transportation and warehousing with 14,500 new jobs. Photographer: Norm Betts/Bloomberg
Canada added almost twice as many
jobs as economists forecast in June, led by part-time staff and
transportation workers, keeping the country’s unemployment rate
at a 2-1/2 year low.
Employment rose by 28,400, Statistics Canada said today in
Ottawa, exceeding the 15,000 median estimate in a Bloomberg News
economist survey. The jobless rate was unchanged at 7.4 percent,
the lowest since January 2009.
Canada’s job recovery since the global recession has been
faster than other Group of Seven countries as companies expand
to fill commodity orders. Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney
has said economic growth may be slowing on disruptions in
automobile production and the drag on exports of a strong
Canadian dollar.
The jobs performance is “much better than what is going on
in most countries,” said Mark Chandler, head of Canadian
currency and rates strategy at Royal Bank of Canada’s RBC
Capital Markets in Toronto. “There are very few holes you can
poke in the jobs market.”
The Canadian dollar reversed earlier gains after the U.S.
reported weaker-than-forecast job figures at 8:30 a.m. New York
time. The Canadian dollar fell 0.4 percent to 96.26 cents per
U.S. dollar at 9:33 a.m. in Toronto, compared with 95.87
yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0391. The yield on the
Canadian government two-year bond fell six basis points to 1.52
percent.
U.S. Payrolls
The U.S. Labor Department said payrolls rose 18,000 in
June, less than the gain in Canada, a country with a 10th the
population. The U.S. jobless rate rose in June to 9.2 percent
from 9.1 percent, while economists predicted it would be
unchanged.
The American unemployment rate peaked at 10.1 percent in
October 2009, while Canadian unemployment has fallen from a peak
of 8.7 percent in August 2009.
Canada’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in June as
the labor force grew by 42,000.
Part-time employment rose by 21,100, and full-time by 7,300
positions, Statistics Canada said. Employment rose the most in
transportation and warehousing with 14,500 new jobs and
financial services with 11,300.
Government Jobs
Self-employment decreased by 44,200 in June, while paid
employment advanced by 72,600, Statistics Canada said. Public-
sector employment rose by 50,700 in June and the number of
positions at private companies increased 21,900.
Average hourly wages rose 2 percent in June from a year
ago, matching the previous month’s pace.
Still, some Canadian companies are struggling to find
skilled workers, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said July
6.
“While there are people who are unemployed, there are
still jobs going begging,” she told reporters in Ottawa.
“There is a degree of skills mismatch across the country.”
To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Quinn in Ottawa at
gquinn1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
David Scanlan at
dscanlan@bloomberg.net;
Chris Wellisz at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net
OTTAWA – The Canadian economy posted better than expected job growth in June, helped by a gain in part-time jobs to post its third consecutive month of increases.
Statistics Canada reported Friday that the net gain of 28,000 jobs came at the end of a quarter of slow economic growth. It stood in stark contrast to a disappointing report south of the border, where the much larger U.S. economy gained just 18,000 jobs.
TD Bank chief economist Craig Alexander called the discrepancy “ridiculous.”
“In the wake of the recent recession, the Canadian economy is generating a job-filled recovery, even to the point where economists are worried about the fact that it doesn’t appear that we’re getting much productivity growth out of our workers,” he said.
“Meanwhile the story in the United States is the dead opposite.”
Statistics Canada said the Canada economy added 21,000 part-time jobs, compared with 7,000 new full-time jobs. Economists had expected an overall increase of 10,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the country’s unemployment rate held steady in June at 7.4 per cent as the number of people entering the workforce increased.
In the U.S. however, the employment rate rose to 9.2 per cent, from 9.1 per cent in May, according to the U.S. Labour Department.
The loonie was down 0.53 of a cent to 103.78 cents U.S. following the two reports.
BMO deputy chief economist Douglas Porter characterized the Canadian report as a small point in favour of the Bank of Canada gradually raising its key interest rate later this year.
“If you blinked, you may have missed the slowdown in Canada’s job growth,” Porter wrote in a note to clients.
“While the details of the release may not be as impressive as the sturdy headline, there is no denying that the labour market continues to make impressive progress.”
The Canadian results came as the economy slowed in the second quarter.
David Madani, Canadian economist at Capital Economics, forecast GDP growth in Canada slowed to an annual rate of 1.2 per cent in the April-June quarter compared with a rate of 3.9 per cent in the first three months of the year.
“Although we anticipate a partial rebound in the third quarter, prospects for a sustained rebound in the second half of this year appear to be slipping,” Madani wrote in a note.
“We also expect any pick up in U.S. economic growth during the second half of this year to be limited and growth in the developing world appears to be slowing.”
Alexander noted that it was that weakness in the U.S. and worries about the global economy that would likely keep the Bank of Canada from raising its key interest until next year.
The bank last hiked interest rates last September, lifting its policy setting rate to one per cent.
“The recent job numbers and the recent inflation numbers would make the case from a domestic point of view that they could raise rates in the near term,” Alexander said.
“However, most of the commentary from the Bank of Canada has emphasized the external risks.”
Alexander also noted that he expected that job creation in Canada to slow in the second half of the year.
“It is not going to be negative. It is not going to contract or anything like that, it’s just going to have to slow because the economy won’t support the same rate of job creation,” he said.
In Canada, the public sector added 51,000 jobs in June, while there were 22,000 new jobs in the private sector. However, those gains were offset by a drop of 44,000 in the number of self-employed people in Canada.
The gains were led by the transportation and warehousing industry which saw a gain of 15,000 jobs, while the professional, scientific and technical services sector lost 19,000 jobs.
The construction and manufacturing sectors were little changed for the month.
Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia all posted employment gains in June, while Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador saw losses.
Employment was up 40,000 jobs in Ontario following a slight drop in May.
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Linda Howe
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Linda Howe
THE BLADE
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The former director of the Lucas County Board of Elections has been hired to a Maumee Municipal Court part-time job that did not previously exist and had not been advertised — drawing the ire of some councilmen and city administrators.
Linda Howe, along with her deputy director, Jeremy Demagall, was fired March 25 by the elections board. The firings were done at the request of Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted after errors were found during the counting of more than 4,000 provisional ballots during the November election.
Last month, Maumee City Council was told that Ms. Howe had been hired at the city’s court and she would work 20 hours a week for $18.99 per hour.
Council President Rich Carr was among those who objected, but was powerless to alter the decision by Municipal Court Judge Gary Byers.
“We have been dealing with a deficit at the city for the last four years and we have not added any employees,” Mr. Carr said. “We have taken a projected deficit of about $3 million to $4 million and this year we are going to break even, but the court will operate at a loss of about $800,000, which the city has to make up.”
Mr. Carr also said traffic and criminal cases filed in 2010 had decreased compared to 2008 figures.
Ms. Howe, who is not eligible for paid leave or health insurance, worked at the court for 13 years as a probation officer until she resigned in 2008 to become the director of the Lucas County Board of Elections.
Judge Byers took umbrage with comments that the court operates at a loss and that Ms. Howe’s hiring was unnecessary.
“She worked in our probation department for 13 years and did a great job,” he said.
Judge Byers said Ms. Howe was hired to handle administrative matters, which was part of a recommendation made by the Ohio Supreme Court last year.
“I didn’t want to hire a full-time person with all the benefits because that would be very expensive,” he said.
The judge added: “We no more run a deficit than the police run a deficit of $6 million… We are not a money-making line item for the city.”
Linda Wilker, Maumee’s acting finance director, said the hire was frustrating for the city administration, which must make the salary balance within the budget.
“On the city side our concern was that there was no position open, there is no job description, and there was no posting or advertising of the job, so basically we just got a letter that she was being hired and since they are running a deficit, that got us concerned,” Ms. Wilker said. “The judge’s standpoint was the Supreme Court study said they were supposed to hire an administration person but I had pulled the language from that document and it does not say hire, it says appoint a staff member.”
CENTERVILLE, IOWA — The mayor of Centerville will soon be a part-time job.
Centerville city council has moved along with a proposal to cut the full-time mayor’s position to part-time. It would also slash the salary to $14,000. The change could take place within the next month.
Current mayor Marsha Mitchell says this change is much needed for both efficiency and monetary reason.
“Like most cities, were not rolling in money by any stretch of the imagination,” said Mitchell. “It provides a little more continuity and stability.”
Mitchell has been mayor since 2008 and has no plans to run for re-election. She says her decision not to run again is not due to the possible changes.
The form of government the city has, (mayor and city council), will not change under the provision. The new role for the new mayor would take place on January 1, 2012.
The city has recently appointed city clerk Kim Crego to the position of city administrator. This will help the new part-time mayor next year. That job appointment will take place on the first of next year as well.
Crego is a native of Centerville and is looking forward to working with familiar faces.
“It’s fabulous,” said Crego. “I know a lot of the personalities already. It wasn’t like I didn’t know a lot of these people. I grew up with them, went to school with them, so Centerville’s a small enough town that you know everybody who lives here.”
In American football, there’s something called the “Red Zone.” It’s the part of the field inside the twenty yard line, and performance (both offensively and defensively) inside this area is one of the key determining factors of a team’s success or failure.
Teams that easily advance the ball down the field but can’t score in the Red Zone will lose football games. Similarly, teams that play great open field defense but can’t prevent scores in the Red Zone will lose. Performance within this very small sliver of the field often determines overall success or failure for a team.
A Red Zone of Success
A similar principle applies to life, work and productivity. There are certain activities that will determine success or failure, depending on how well and how consistently they are performed. It’s important to identify these Red Zone activities in life–the ones that will most affect your success or failure–and execute them flawlessly every time.
For example, here are some of my Red Zone activities.
Study
If I am not constantly filling my brain with new thoughts, I’ve noticed that I start to wither and die. Regardless of how busy I am or how much demand is on my attention, I know that neglecting study will soon reap a dearth of new ideas and an overall lack of passion for my work. It doesn’t always feel like the most productive thing in the moment, but I know that it’s essential and that I must do it well and consistently.
Idea Time
I must constantly be building time into my schedule to generate ideas. I’m not an “a-ha!” in the shower kind of guy. Most of my great ideas come in the midst of purposeful ideation. When I don’t have these times structured into my life, everything else seems to become more difficult. I need to put these times on my calendar and execute them well each time.
Writing
I write a lot, but I’ve realized that if I don’t get at least a thousand words in each day, I tend to lost my momentum. The simple practice emptying my brain of new thoughts ensures that they don’t clog up the works. I’ve found that my writing endurance in on-demand situations is connected directly to this principle of forcing myself to write even when I don’t feel like it.
Family
I need to protect the first part of my day and the window of time right after work for my family. I am not always great at this, but it’s something I’m aspiring to improve because I realize that the biggest impact I have on my family happens during these two windows of time.
As a result, I have tried to build “buffers” between work and family time so that I’m not rushing home, spending ten minutes in the driveway finishing a phone call, then storming into the house with a hundred things on my mind. When I am out of rhythm with the family, I am out of rhythm with everything.
Conclusion
None of the items on my list would traditionally be considered “highly productive” activities, yet they are critical because they increase my effectiveness when I’m engaging in my most important work. I’ve learned that it’s necessary to develop an effectiveness mindset, rather than one based on efficiency, in order to produce consistently over the long-term.
We need to identify the important practices that make us effective rather than relying on flash and show. It’s the linemen–the grunt workers–that provide the foundation for success in football. And it’s our willingness to stay disciplined about our effective (grunt work) practices that will provide the foundation for our everyday engagement.
These are just a few of my Red Zone activities. I’d love to hear about yours!
Image by americanistadechiapas via Flickr.
(updated ranking numbers 7/7)
We’ll take a break today from our torrent of “top-paid city positions” stories, and turn our attention back to our beloved water/wastewater districts.
Specifically, how much do these 18 separate little governments — whose combined annual revenues are nearly $1.4 billion — pay the throngs on their elected boards of directors?
According to the Orange County grand jury’s recent report (…drum roll, please…):
- The top-paid Water Lords in Orange County are, of course, at the powerful Irvine Ranch Water District, where average annual compensation is nearly $39,000. (Not bad for a part-time job, as we have snidely quipped in the past.)
- Next up is the Municipal Water District of Orange County, the water-importer for parched South County (and north as needed), where directors averaged more than $37,000. (Ditto here on snide remark.)
- Then there’s the Orange County Water District, which manages the ground water supply for North County, where directors’ average annual compensation was $35,000.
- At Moulton Niguel (water and wastewater service to 167,000 in Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo and Dana Point), $31,757.
- At Mesa Consolidated (serving 110,000 customers in Costa Mesa, parts of Newport
Beach, and unincorporated parts of the county, including John Wayne Airport), comp is more than $29,000. - And at Trabuco Canyon (serving 13,000 customers Portola Hills, Dove Canyon, etc.), it’s $26,000.
The striking thing is how much of this compensation comes in the form of benefits – primarily health insurance payments, but sometimes retirement payments, too — especially at little Trabuco Canyon.
At Trabuco, directors made just $7,850 a year in meeting pay — what is traditionally quoted as their “salary.”
But they’re also getting health insurance worth $18,077 a year — each. 
That’s way more than twice their traditional pay, and, again, an interesting perk for a part-time, public-service sort of job.
Keep in mind this is more than most city council members make for much more high-profile jobs. (Stay tuned: We’ll be getting to the grand jury’s specifics on city council pay in coming days.)
Here’s the grand jury’s awesome chart on the water districts, laying this out for us visually (click on the charts to make them bigger):
And here it is laid out for us in more detail, albeit less color:
WHY DOES DIRECTOR COMPENSATION VARY SO MUCH?
Part of that is based on their size and on decisions made by their boards concerning their benefits, the grand jury found.
“In the early 1990’s the California Water Code Section 20201 put a ceiling of $100 on the maximum amount water board members can receive for attendance at any one meeting of the board or directors,” it said. “However, Section 20202 authorizes water district boards to increase the amount of compensation not to exceed 5% for each calendar year, although any such increase is at the board’s discretion.
“Some districts have chosen to increase the per meeting director stipend regularly while others have not. This has resulted in a disparity in meeting compensation between districts ranging from $100 per meeting up to $237 per meeting.
“In addition to meeting compensation, State statutes also limit the maximum number of compensable meetings to 10 monthly for water districts and 6 monthly for sanitation districts. Some districts hold very few meetings per month, while others approach the maximum allowed, due to extensive subcommittee meetings or qualifying meetings with outside agencies. Thus annual director compensation for meetings alone has a wide range, from as little as $1,200 (Sunset Beach Sanitary District) to $28,000 (Irvine Ranch Water District).
(We’ll point out here that many water districts fork over meeting pay for things many of us would have trouble classifying as “meetings” — see Should public pay when directors attend soirees? for more on that.)
But while pay per meeting is set by law, benefits — such as medical insurance and retirement — are not, the grand jury said. Benefits paid to special district directors are set solely by the board of directors themselves. Four districts provided retirement benefits and 10 districts provided insurance benefits to their directors.
LACK OF TRANSPARENCY
You’ll be hard-pressed to get this information from the districts themselves.
The grand jury discovered what those of us who muck around in government business have known for some time: Getting information can be like pulling teeth!
Forget about employment contracts and budgets and audits and compensation information — some can’t even manage to post meeting agendas or minutes.
Websites maintained by special districts should provide at least these minimum features, the grand jury said:
- A clearly labeled link or links on the website’s home page to all financial and compensation information.
- Compensation data for the board of directors and general manager, listing all types of compensation (salary and other benefits) in a clear, understandable manner.
- If the general manager operates under a contract, then a copy of the current contract should be posted on the district’s website.
- The current and previous fiscal year budgets should be posted. If available, the district’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) should be included.
- Public meeting information, including dates, times, location, agendas and minutes should be listed and rigorously updated.
The grand jury gave a shout-out to one district doing it right: the Costa Mesa Sanitary District. Through a “Transparency” link on its home page, it provides an extensive variety of compensation and benefit information, as well as additional links to “Agenda Minutes” and “Finances,” which “round out what is a superior website in terms of information accessibility.”
FUN FACTS
- Combined total annual revenues for the 18 water and sanitation special districts in Orange County approach $1.4 billion.
- Board of director meeting stipends for water and sanitation special districts are capped by the state. Other compensation packages for the board of directors and the general manager are set by the board of directors in each district.
- Directors elected or appointed after June 30, 1994, are prohibited from participating in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). But as you see, there are still several dinosaurs — oops, we mean veterans – on the boards, collecting retirement pay.
- A special district is a separate local government that delivers a limited number of public services to a geographically limited area. Water districts were formed in Orange County as early as 1925 (Laguna Beach County Water District).
- Orange County has 14 water and 4 sanitation (waste water) districts; all classified as independent districts, each having their own board of directors.
- Not all areas of Orange County use water district services. These communities (typically older cities) have their own water sources and are operated by either city governments or private water companies.
- Originally, water districts were limited by state law to what services they could provide. But in 1963 the California Water District Act was amended allowing water districts to provide wastewater and water reclamation services.
TOO MANY?
This is The Watchdog’s perennial question, not the grand jury’s. But grand jury members did attend many special district meetings — and found themselves to be the only ones in the audience.
Even though these little governments haul in nearly $1.4 billion a year, no one cared. No one was watching.
And that, the grand jury said, is a recipe for disaster.
Take a look at the chart below, detailing how many people each district serves (it ranges from 2,500 to 2.4 million), how many employees each district has (it ranges from three to 648) and annual revenue (it ranges from $384,000 to $595 million).
Might there be room for greater efficiency? Just asking.
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By Andy Sedlak,
Staff Writer
8:32 PM Wednesday, July 6, 2011
TRENTON — The search for the city of Trenton’s first part-time fire chief is complete.
The post — traditionally a volunteer role — will go to Darrell Yater, who retired in 2007 as a lieutenant from the Middletown Division of Fire.
Yater, 63, began his career in 1971 as a volunteer with Madison Twp.’s fire crews.
“It’s still just the love of being a fireman and providing a service,” Yater said of his interest in the job.
Yater will earn an annual salary of $29,000, according to City Manager John Jones. In terms of benefits, he will have access to a retired police cruiser as a take-home vehicle. Yater will be expected to work 25 hours per week.
The fire chief job opening attracted the attention of 19 candidates, Jones said. That list was eventually narrowed to four: Yater; Brian Ruhl of the Hamilton Fire Department; Matthew Schuman, who worked with fire departments in Fairfield and Fairfield Twp.; and Christopher Johns of the fire department in Goshen Twp. The four interviewed June 30 before a nine-member panel primarily made up of city administrators and firefighters.
The hope is that Yater’s position is the first of many volunteer fire positions that will become part-time, Jones said. A fire levy will go before voters this fall. If passed, it could generate up to $750,000 a year and convert Trenton’s volunteer base into a part-time staff.
“That’s the goal,” Jones said. “To do that we needed to (first) bring on a part-time chief.”
The fire department — made up of roughly 35 members — is now making about 20 runs per month. Trenton’s emergency medical crew, also part of the department, makes about 100 runs per month.
“Between the two, we’re at about 1,300 department runs for the year,” Jones said.
The number of runs are growing along with the city. Trenton’s population of 8,700 in 2001 has grown about 33 percent to approximately 12,000, Jones said.
Additionally, the city is expanding geographically. It recently annexed about 185 acres near the MillerCoors brewery off Wayne-Madison Road.
“There’s a growing need for a fire department with adequate staffing,” Yater said. “Right now, being all-volunteer, you’re relying on people to donate their time.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or asedlak@coxohio.com.
Kirk Condyles for The New York TimesA cashier prepared a cone at a Friendly’s in Long Island as part of a summer job in August 2007.
While some high-end college counselors may recommend that their clients embark on expensive and exotic community-service endeavors in third-world countries in pursuit of an elite college acceptance, other applicants find themselves working in their hometown to save money for school. These students may, understandably, worry that their part-time job will be a blemish on their application.
(Just last week on this blog, two authors of a book on college preparation wrote that students consider spending “a few weeks touring Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia” in the summer before freshman year, a potentially expensive excursion that provoked a backlash in the comments stream.)
However, students who forgo a pricey summer activity or an unpaid internship in order to earn for college have not necessarily hurt their chances of admission at all — and could well have helped them, to say nothing of easing the financial burden on themselves and their parents. The answers, though, like so much in admissions, are mixed and not necessarily formulaic.
In an interview, Southern Methodist University’s director of admissions, Stephanie Dupaul, provided the reassuring words that some of the best personal essays she’d read were the result of a summer working in fast food.
“It demonstrates that students are working hard,” she said. “We look for students who haven’t turned off over the summer.”
Similarly, Ann McDermott, the director of admissions for the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, said that she looked favorably on any summer job, especially when there was a financial need.
“I applaud any student who is either helping themselves or helping their family,” she said. “You do still need to pay attention to the bottom line, and that is a dollar amount.”
And yet, the director of admissions for Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, Bruce Bunnick, said that he did not like it when students used the supplemental portion of their application to justify their summer activities. Providing that rationale, he said, is simply not necessary; financial need is understandable.
“There are certainly students who feel they need to collect a salary, and they’ll earn that salary any way they see fit,” he said. “But I think students are very quick to offer why they took that path. A student is a bit more prone to offer rationale as to why they took a more menial job. I don’t think there should be an absolute need to justify it.”
A key word that admissions directors use when referring to summer activities is “engagement.” Admissions officers say they may be more inclined to accept students who are doing something with their summer other than wasting away on a couch.
The director of admissions at American University in Washington, D.C., Greg Grauman, said that he particularly liked to see students who “follow their professions.” A student who wants to be pre-law, for example, will take a receptionist job at a law firm, or an aspiring doctor will do administrative work at a hospital.
In New York City, the Department of Youth and Development annually pairs students with jobs that have to do with what they’re passionate about, and provides them with a stipend. Other big cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago have similar programs. In one of these programs, a student interested in finance might be placed at a Wall Street firm.
Others schools don’t put a lot of weight on how a student spends the summer.
“We’re going to be looking primarily at their academic profile, G.P.A., standardized test scores,” said Mary Anderson, the director of admissions at Indiana University at Bloomington. “Where things like activities and interest résumés come into play is if a student is invited to apply for a scholar program or scholarship programs.”
How are school-age readers of The Choice spending the summer? Do they, or their adult counterparts, have any words of wisdom for students still looking for summer employment? And do admissions officers have any coda to add to the advice provided above?
Please use the comment box below to let us know.