The Canadian Labour and Staffing Journal

The Canadian Labour and Staffing Journal

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Latest — 13 Nov 2026

A Second Year of Decline: Inside Statistics Canada’s Latest Numbers on the Staffing Industry

Employment services revenue slipped 1.3% in 2025. Ontario grew, Quebec fell sharply, and the Prairies offered a bright spot. Canada’s employment services industry covers temporary staffing, permanent placement, executive search and professional employer organizations. It generated C$23.89 billion in operating revenue in 2025. That is 1.

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The Bank of Canada Turns Hawkish: What a Rate Hike Means for Staffing Firms and Their Clients

The first increase in more than three years arrives as the job market weakens, setting up a difficult mix of rising costs and soft demand. On October 28, the Bank of Canada raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.5%, its first increase since July 2023.

The Private Sector Blinks: What October’s Jobs Report Signals for Staffing

Headline employment barely moved, but a 53,000-job drop in private payrolls and a stalled job finding rate tell a more worrying story. At first glance, October’s Labour Force Survey looked like a pause. Statistics Canada reported that employment was essentially flat, down 4,700, after two months

Nobody's Getting Fired. Nobody's Getting Hired.

If you only read one number this week, make it 30.6%. That's the share of unemployed Canadians who found a job last month, and before the pandemic it was 36.5%. Employers aren't laying people off in big numbers. They're just not hiring,

The Shrinking Workforce Is No Longer a Forecast

Canada's labour force participation rate has fallen to its lowest level since 1997, and both Statistics Canada and the Bank of Canada now point to the same cause. Staffing firms are about to work in a market that is slack today and short of people tomorrow. In the

A Flat July and a Watchful Central Bank Set Up the Oct. 28 Decision

The economy stalled in July after a strong spring, but the Bank of Canada is more worried about inflation than growth. For staffing firms, the rate path now hinges on oil, tariffs and a softening labour market. Canada's economy went nowhere in July. Real gross domestic product was

Factories Slow and Service Firms Shed Staff Heading Into the Fourth Quarter

September's purchasing managers' surveys show manufacturing losing momentum and services contracting for a fourth month. Firms are cutting headcount while still complaining they cannot find skilled people. Canada's factory sector is still growing, but more slowly than at any point since the spring. The S&

Half a Million Open Jobs, and None of Them Moving

Job vacancies have held near 501,000 for seven months. Beneath the flat line, demand is rotating toward manufacturing and Alberta, and away from retail, Ontario and Quebec. Canadian employers reported 501,000 vacant positions in July, the seventh consecutive month of little change, according to Statistics Canada payroll and

Canada's Jobs Market Stalls, and the Public Sector Leads the Retreat

Canada lost 68,000 jobs in September, according to the Labour Force Survey released Oct. 9, a second monthly decline in a row after a loss of 42,000 in August. The employment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 60.6 percent. The unemployment rate rose to 6.5

A Strong Spring, a Shaky Fall

In all honesty, a few months ago I thought we might finally be turning a corner. The economy grew at an annualized 3.3 percent in the second quarter, and employers added 181,000 jobs between April and July. For an industry that lives and dies by client confidence, it