The world is hiring Canadian

Canadian remote workers are being hired by foreign companies in increasing numbers, according to data gathered by hiring firm Deel and analyzed by researchers at Deel Lab for Global Employment at Queen’s University.

Using data from over 14,000 Canadian work contracts, the company was able to identify Australia, Sweden, Singapore and India as the countries with the fastest growing rates of Canadian hires.

Samuel Dahan, Deel Lab Chair and Chief of Policy at Deel, explained to HRD that the hiring trend is largely due to global tech workers increasingly doing their jobs remotely, with Canada offering tech savvy employees who may demand lower wages than their American counterparts.

“There are a lot of highly educated and a lot of leading research centers in Canada in the Toronto area, a lot of startup companies also in this area,” Dahan said. “They're probably a little bit cheaper than American workers, and they are highly trained, highly educated, and I think a lot of companies are really looking for talent in this space.

Australia, Sweden and Singapore hiring Canadians at most increased rates

Deel Labs analysts were able to identify Australia (224% increase), Sweden (109% increase) and Singapore (80% increase) as the top three countries amping up hiring of Canadian remote workers. India followed closely at a 62% increase since the beginning of January 2023.

Dahan identified tough immigration laws and worker shortages as the main reasons behind the increased interest in Canadian talent.

“A lot of these countries are facing a massive talent shortage, and they also have a lot of immigration barriers – Sweden, especially,” said Dahan. “They've implemented very conservative immigration reforms, which makes hiring workers very difficult, so hiring people remotely is the best thing in the world.”

U.S./Canada bilateral hiring trends

There was a 14% increase in workers being hired by U.S. companies in 2023, according to Deel’s data analysis, with software developer being the fastest growing role at 92%. Half of the Canadian employees hired by American companies live in Ontario, followed by B.C. at 23%.

“It seems like a lot of American companies are hiring Canadian workers, and a lot of Canadian companies are hiring U.S. workers,” Dahan said.

Also, the data showed that Canadians are holding their employment at U.S. companies for longer, as terminations of Canadian workers by U.S. companies went down by 41% in 2023.

Increase of remote work leads to legal complications for employers

Due to legal gray areas, increased remote hiring of workers in other countries can result in complicated legalities around hiring regulations, including for foreign companies hiring Canadian workers remotely.

“If they don't have a legal entity in Canada, they usually hire them as an independent contractor,” he said. This can be an impediment to hiring top talent, as it can prevent a company’s ability to offer perks such as benefits packages or pensions.

By using third party hiring firms, Dahan said, HR can avoid pitfalls of misclassification of employees and any resulting non-compliance or legal issues.

“We've created a series of AI systems to help HR professionals to determine what are the risks of misclassification … the machine can predict and follow the case law.”