6.8 per thousand employees laid off in second quarter, finds report
The gradual decline in employer recruiting activity from earlier highs continued in the second quarter of 2023, according to a report.
As of July 14, total Canadian job postings on Indeed were down 27 per cent from their early May 2022 peak.
However, they are still up 27 per cent compared to pre-pandemic data.
There are several patterns worth noting, says Brendon Bernard, senior economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab.
“First, postings in several white-collar occupations including tech and marketing have dropped faster than others (the former from exceptionally high levels), to the point where postings in these fields are now below their pre-pandemic levels.
“In contrast, while demand has cooled in a majority of sectors — spanning food services, driving, administrative assistance, and construction, among others — it has not fallen as dramatically. And a handful of sectors, namely in healthcare and education, have bucked the economy-wide trend and are actually up from a year earlier.”
Canada welcomed more than 32,000 technology workers through migration in the past year, due largely in part to a more immigration-friendly national policy and a labour cost advantage, according to a recent report.
Job postings per sector
Year-over-year, Canadian job postings through July 14, 2023 increased in the education and instruction (+22 per cent), therapy (+18 per cent), dental (+7 per cent) and nursing (+4 per cent).
However they dropped in the following sectors:
- software development (-62 per cent)
- marketing (-42 per cent)
- banking and finance (-40 per cent)
- human resources (-39 per cent)
- food preparation and service (-26 per cent)
- driving (-24 per cent)
- administrative assistance (-23 per cent)
- construction (-20 per cent)
Job postings for human resources positions in March were up 134 per cent compared to February 2020, Indeed previously reported.
Since February 2020, only software development (-21 per cent) and marketing (-18 per cent) have seen declines.
The rest continued to post substantial growth:
- education and instruction (+90 per cent)
- nursing (+80 per cent)
- dental (+70 per cent)
- therapy (+68 per cent)
- construction (+46 per cent)
- food preparation and service (+41 per cent)
- administrative assistance (+27 per cent)
- banking and finance (+22 per cent)
- driving (+21 per cent)
- human resources (+19 per cent)
Meanwhile, the number of people out of work who were laid off or discharged last month averaged 6.8 per thousand employees in the second quarter, similar to a year earlier, and still below the 2017-2019, pre-pandemic range of 8.1 to 9.1
“New jobs aren’t being created at rapid rates, but with relatively few people falling out of work, net employment has remained in positive territory,” says Bernard.