Is the summer economy still a factor for the next generation of workers, or has the prospect of wading into the working life experiences delivered by entry-level employment become passé?
Front-line interaction with customers in service industries ranging from grocery checkout duty to restaurant table bussing and retail sales offers instant immersion in public relations and people-skills development.
Neither can be downloaded through social media or taught in online education courses.
The challenge, however, is that the public is not always a friendly beast, and developing people skills takes time, patience and emotional intelligence.
If that sounds like a lot of work, it is.
But there are no shortcuts to graduating from People Skills 101.
The failure rate is high.
That is unfortunate for a wide range of career aspirations, because good people skills are becoming increasingly valuable in the 21st century job market and increasingly fundamental to career success.
The good news today for people entering the workforce is that there is a lot of work available. That Canadian job market buoyancy is underscored in the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey. The poll of more than 1,000 employers across Canada found that 47 per cent plan to add staff in 2022’s third quarter.
Sectors with the strongest employment outlook include manufacturing, technology, media and communications, finance and real estate.
That bodes well for summer job options, which open the ground-floor door to the opportunities and challenges presented in a wide range of business sectors.
They help entry-level workers determine what they like to do and what they do not like to do.
They are the practical lessons in an overall education system that should be focused on directing students along the career paths that give them the best odds for success and by extension give the economy the best odds for success.
They also illustrate the importance of summer economy and summer job market traditions.
