According to a new poll conducted by recruitment firm Robert Half, half of the Canadian Job Market Trends workers intend to look for a new job in 2023, a nearly two-fold increase from just a year ago.
According to a September 2022 study, 50% of respondents said they wanted to look for a new job within the next six months.
This figure has progressively increased over the last year and a half, rising from roughly 21% of employees looking for a new job in June 2021 to 28% a year ago and 31% six months ago.
According to the most recent polling, this Canadian Job Market Trends predicts that employees who have been with a company for two to four years, generation Z and millennials, tech workers, and working parents are the most likely to make a career change.
The top reasons for looking for a new job include higher compensation, better benefits and bonuses, more prospects for growth, and greater flexibility in terms of when and where they work.
Canadian Job Market Trends: What to Expect in 2023
According to the survey, nearly three out of every ten professionals would consider quitting their work to pursue a full-time contracting career.
David King, senior managing director of Robert Half for Canada and South America, said many Canadian workers are upbeat about the labour market despite reports of layoffs and a slowdown in hiring.
Professionals with in-demand skills understand their leverage in the face of talent scarcity and are open to new options that present more meaningful work, higher compensation, and improved perks and benefits, he said in a statement.
Robert Half advises firms looking for top talent to streamline and improve their hiring procedures as well as emphasize their corporate cultures.
When applying for a job, potential applicants are turned off by unclear or unreasonable work responsibilities, poor communication with the hiring manager, and misalignment with the corporate culture and values.
On Friday, Statistics Canada will release the most recent job data for December 2022.
The job market is not about to slow down anytime soon.
While it is unknown what 2023 will bring, Scotiabank’s Derek Holt believes the trend is encouraging.
He said that Canada now has 627,000 more employees than it did before the epidemic, 222,000 of which will be open in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Contrary to what many economists expected, this trend does not seem to be slowing down.
Additional hiring is anticipated in 2023.
According to Holt, the majority of Canadian companies “continue to communicate” that they want to hire more people in 2023 than organizations that intend to lay off staff.
Yet, he warns that the strong numbers conceal a “moribund performance on labour productivity as the cost of this tremendous development.”
Interestingly, the jobless rate dropped unexpectedly to 5% from 5.1 % in November. Analysts predicted a small increase.
Full-time work was on the rise
The increase in full-time employment was mostly responsible for the increase in unemployment (among youth aged 15 to 24). It was dispersed across industries, according to Statscan.
Employment in the public sector remained stable as well.
The jobless rate has dropped for the third time in the last four months. In June and July of 2022, the rate fell to a historic low of 4.9 per cent.
Rates will be raised as a result of spectacular statistics.
In December, the average hourly compensation for permanent employees increased 5.2 per cent year on year. This is a decrease from 5.4 per cent in November.
Most economists believe that the “exceptional” jobless figures will result in another interest rate hike, which is likely on January 25.
Since March 2022, the Bank of Canada has raised its key interest rate seven times in a row. It is presently 4.25 per cent. According to the Bank’s plan, increasing borrowing costs will restrict economic spending and slow the rate of price growth.
Concerns of a recession are no longer valid.
“That creates some worries for those of us who are predicting at least a modest recession this year,” Douglas Porter, BMO’s chief economist, told Nojoud Al Mallees of the Canadian Press.
According to Brendon Bernard, senior economist at hiring website Indeed, the overall trend for 2022 “of low unemployment and robust job market conditions remained until the last stages of the year.”
Other highlights from the Statscan report include:
- Wages continued to grow at a year-over-year pace above 5.0 per cent for the seventh consecutive month, with wages up 5.1 per cent.
- The country’s inflation rate, which was 6.8 per cent in November, continues to outpace wage increases.
- The increase in employment among young people aged 15 to 24 in December fully offset the job losses that occurred between July and September.
Last month, the employment rate for women between the ages of 25 and 54 reached a new high.
The number of hours worked remained constant in December despite monthly employment growth.
According to Statistics Canada, 8.1 per cent of workers missed work this month because of illness or a disability, up from 6.8 per cent in November.
The labour market’s strength has fueled some hope that the projected economic slowdown will be less painful than a usual recession.
In additional positive news for newcomers arriving in Canada to work, Statistics Canada says that the country’s working population (those aged 15 to 64) has never been older, writes Vival Sivakumar for CIC News.
Increased retirements will help newcomers
More than 20% of Canadians classified as being of working age are between the ages of 55 and 64, implying that they are nearing retirement. Nevertheless, the majority of recent immigrants in Canada are between the ages of 25 and 54.
Because the majority of recent newcomers are of working age, they will most certainly make up an even larger proportion of Canada’s declining workforce in the future.
With 430,000 new permanent residents, Canada will establish an immigration record in 2022.
In 2023, Canada intends to welcome 465,000 new immigrants. This figure will climb to 485,000 entrants in 2024 and 500,000 newcomers in 2025.
