Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Recruiter Corner, a dedicated space designed to bridge the gap between high-level economic shifts and the daily realities of the talent acquisition landscape. In this edition, we will review the sectors that are hiring, how to make sure your hiring process does not forgo the essential human elements, and look at companies currently hiring.

Minh Dang - Editor in Chief

  1. The CSJ Labour Market Outlook: STABLE / CAUTIOUS GROWTH.

While January and February saw a cumulative decline of 109,000 jobs, March added 14,000 positions, holding the unemployment rate steady at 6.7%. At the same time, job vacancies reached in all-time low, putting the labour market in a stronger position for employers. The outlook can be defined as stable, although some sectors do show cautious growth.

Read the full article here.

  1. What sectors are hiring?

The past 2 weeks were defined by a retail breakout, resilience in infrastructure & the care economy crisis. Read the analysis in our full article here.

  1. Why Your "Solid" Hiring Process is Losing You Great Candidates

The shift from a "check-the-box" recruiter to a high-impact talent advisor usually starts with a few hard lessons. Early on, it’s easy to hide behind structured processes, long interview loops, and "perfect" job descriptions. But eventually, you realize that being dependent to the process is exactly what’s causing you to lose great people and slow down your teams.

In this edition, our guest writer Mehdi Kallala, Senior Talent Acquistion and People Experience at Workjam gives us key advice drawn from his experience and how recruiters can be maximizing the value of each interaction.

Read the full article here.

  1. Candidate Climate: The Sentiment Gap

The qualitative landscape is currently defined by a mismatch between worker confidence and application volume.

  • The "Never-Employed" Crisis: The share of Canadians aged 15–24 who have never held a job has reached 26% (up from 21% three years ago). Recruiters in entry-level sectors should expect a workforce with lower "foundational" professional experience.
  • Long-term Joblessness: 3.4% of the core-aged workforce (25–54) has now been out of work for more than six months. This "talent scarring" means recruiters must look closer at candidate resilience and upskilling rather than just linear career paths.
  • AI Saturation: Roughly 29% of Canadian workers now report using AI regularly. In job postings, AI mentions have nearly doubled, now appearing in 6% of all ads, a critical keyword for TA professionals to include to attract tech-savvy talent.
  1. Hiring heatmap

The following companies/public entities have been pushing their hires in the past 2 weeks;

  • Government of Canada (Canada Summer Jobs 2026): The federal government has officially launched its primary youth employment initiative with a $297.7 million budget allocation. The program is targeting the creation of 100,000 positions across the country, focusing on non-profits, small businesses, and public sector employers. For recruiters, this represents the single largest injection of entry-level talent into the market this quarter.
  • Air Canada: Building on its status as one of Montreal’s Top Employers, the carrier is managing a high volume of requisitions to support its summer expansion. Current activity is centered on Bilingual Customer Experience and AI Enablement roles, reflecting a broader industry push to integrate generative AI into passenger logistics and loyalty systems.
  • ABB Canada: Headquartered in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, ABB is currently a dominant recruiter in the industrial automation and sustainable energy sectors. The company is actively hiring for Automation Specialists and Project Engineers, signaling a localized boom in the electrification of the Canadian industrial corridor.
  • Aspire Lifestyles Americas: This organization is currently a primary driver of high-volume remote work in the Atlantic region. By focusing recruitment on Customer Service Representatives in hubs like Saint John and Moncton, New Brunswick, the company is capitalizing on regional talent pools to service a national client base without the overhead of physical office expansion.
  • Caltrax Inc.: Based in Calgary, Caltrax serves as a key indicator for the strength of Canadian industrial logistics. The company has seen a 27.4% increase in headcount over the last twelve months, with recent surges in hiring for railcar technicians and fleet management roles to support increased commodity transport volumes in Western Canada.
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