Key points
- Total job postings on Indeed Canada were up 10% on March 12, compared to early February 2020.
- Job postings have been rising at a fast pace in recent weeks, led by an elevated rate of new postings.
- While some sectors, especially in pandemic-exposed services, lag the overall recovery, most areas have returned to their pre-crisis level, with areas like nursing, loading and stocking, and construction, standing well above.
We regularly update this report to track the pandemic’s effects on the labor market. Our methodology changed at the start of 2021, as explained in the methodology note at the end of the post.
As of March 12, total job postings on Indeed Canada were up 10% from their February 1, 2020 levels, after adjusting for seasonal trends. Postings cleared their pre-pandemic level midway through February, after plunging 47% at the start of the pandemic. Overall, job postings are up a solid 22 percentage points since the start of November.
Recent growth in total job postings has been driven by strong momentum in the number of new job postings being added to Indeed Canada. As of March 12, new job postings were up 22% from last February, a pace they’ve been running at for the past two weeks. It appears many employers are looking through the second wave’s hit to the economy, and ahead to a brighter outlook. Further growth in employment opportunities will likely be important in helping the elevated number of jobless Canadians find new work.
Ontario, B.C., and Alberta finally clear last year’s level
Across Canada, job postings are generally stronger compared to pre-pandemic levels in smaller provinces, especially in Atlantic Canada. Meanwhile, Quebec stands out among the four larger provinces, with postings up from where they stood last February. At the same time there has been a rebound across the board. Over the past two weeks, postings in Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. also surpassed their pre-pandemic level.
Postings doing well in most sectors, but still weak in certain pandemic-exposed areas
Job postings now exceed their pre-pandemic levels across most of the economy. In some cases, the gap is wide, with nursing, construction, loading and stocking, and software development all well above their February 2020 level. Meanwhile, there’ve been solid rebounds similar to the overall trend across a range of areas including installation and maintenance, accounting, and administrative assistance.
On the flip-side, job postings remain weak in several pandemic-exposed sectors like food preparation and service, beauty and wellness, hospitality and tourism, and sports. There’s actually been a bit of progress in these areas of late, albeit not quite matching the overall trend. Like with employment in these areas, there remains much room for improvement.
The public health situation and its economic spillovers continue to change on a daily basis. We’ll be regularly updating this data as conditions evolve.
Methodology
All figures in this blogpost are the percentage change in seasonally-adjusted job postings since February 1, 2020, using a seven-day trailing average. February 1, 2020, is our pre-pandemic baseline. We seasonally adjust each series based on historical patterns in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Each series, including the national trend, occupational sectors, and sub-national geographies, is seasonally adjusted separately.
The number of job postings on Indeed.com, whether related to paid or unpaid job solicitations, is not indicative of potential revenue or earnings of Indeed, which comprises a significant percentage of the HR Technology segment of its parent company, Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. Job posting numbers are provided for information purposes only and should not be viewed as an indicator of performance of Indeed or Recruit. Please refer to the Recruit Holdings investor relations website and regulatory filings in Japan for more detailed information on revenue generation by Recruit’s HR Technology segment.
