Fall is here. Budgets are being confirmed. Roles that were put on hold are coming back. And hiring managers are starting to ask the question that was off the table for much of the year: When can we open positions? The outlook is positive. Three quarters of Canadian hiring managers

For most of the year, the official numbers said the country was losing people. A September revision added back hundreds of thousands of temporary residents and reshaped what the labour supply actually looks like. For three quarters running, the headline was the same: Canada's population was falling. Statistics

Second-quarter output surged. A month later, small-business confidence suffered one of its sharpest drops of the year, and more owners now plan to cut staff than to hire. On paper, the spring was the best stretch the Canadian economy has had in a while. Real GDP grew at

Canadian manufacturers spent five months expanding. A breakdown in trade negotiations with Washington has put the light-industrial staffing market on uncertain footing heading into winter. Two days before the deadline, officials in Ottawa and Washington were signalling that a compromise was close. Negotiators had discussed cutting American tariffs on

The Bank of Canada has held at 2.25 percent for nearly a year. Its language in September suggested the debate inside the bank has shifted, and employers who rely on cheap credit should take note. When the Bank of Canada left its policy rate unchanged on Sept. 2, almost

For staffing firms hoping the first quarter's rebound in job vacancies marked the start of a new hiring cycle, Statistics Canada's latest reading offers a more measured answer: not yet, but the ground is shifting. According to the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey released on September

Canadian employers are planning a third straight year of flat salary budgets for 2027, and most of them made those plans before the latest tariff escalation. The first major read on 2027 compensation is in, and it looks a great deal like the last two years. Mercer Canada's

In June, this journal reported that Canada's services sector had returned to growth, with the S&P Global Canada Services PMI reaching 50.6 in May after seven months of contraction. The recovery did not last. The index has now spent three consecutive months below the 50.