Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was quoted on Friday predicting “continuing growth in unemployment.” This is unwelcome news, to say the least. Officially, 8.4% of the country’s labour force was out of work in May (the latest date we have stats for). While that’s the worst we’ve seen in more than a decade, Bay Street is predicting continued job losses. They tell us we should expect a national unemployment rate of nine-point-something in 2010.

The only thing worse than being one of the 8.4%, is trying to maintain some level of job search momentum in the dead of summer. July and August can be long, tough months. Vacation schedules must be accommodated. Decision-making slows to a crawl.

Don’t be discouraged. The best practices that the experts encourage between September and June still apply. In fact, you can take advantage of the next eight weeks in ways you might not have considered:

• Vacations notwithstanding, this is a great time of year for coffee meetings and other networking. Leaders have more time for you right now. And they’ll be impressed that you’re still out there pounding the pavement. Take advantage.
• The formal event calendar will be pretty dry until the fall. So what? It’s the informal get-togethers that should be your focus these days. Get out to as many as possible. See if you can host one or two.
• Keep on applying for jobs. Sure, the volume is down. So is your competition. A lot of Canadian job hunters take the summer off, with the misguided assumption that the effort won’t be productive. Still more do so because they think they have been presented a rare opportunity to enjoy the warm weather. Don’t be one of these people.
• Look for contract work. Some organizations will post short-term opportunities to keep things moving while key people are on vacation. Watch for these openings. If there aren’t any advertised, ask anyway.
• Work for free. It can be an effective way to get your foot in a few doors, and build your network. Again, vacation schedules open up opportunities. This works in the non-profit world, and in some for-profit organizations. But be careful, for a couple of reasons. Larger, established organizations tend not to know how to accommodate offers like this. Don’t have this conversation if you don’t have a pretty good sense of how it will go. The other risk here is that you can come across as a bit too eager. Years ago, I spent a ton of time and effort writing about music for free in an attempt to establish myself as a music journalist. Guess how that worked out.

Things slow down in July and August, but they don’t stop. Meaningful work does get done in the summertime, despite what some people say. The pressure to perform is greater than ever in today’s economy. All organizations are looking for ways to be more competitive.

Show them that you can help.