This post is updated as of September 14, reflecting data through September 11. We will be regularly updating this data as we track how COVID-19 impacts the global labour market. 

Key points:

  • As of September 11th, total job postings on Indeed Canada stood at 21% below last year’s trend, a modest improvement from the week prior. 
  • The gap in new postings, which can be volatile, widened to 10% below 2019’s path, from -3% a week earlier, reflecting a later Labour Day than last year. 

Total job postings on Indeed Canada edged up compared to last year’s trend, as of Friday, September 11th, standing 21% below 2019 levels. The gap was -22% the previous Friday, up from -49% in early May. Overall, this suggests Canadian labour demand hasn’t yet plateaued in its gradual, yet still incomplete recovery.  

Line graph trend Canadian job postings gradually recovering following pandemic.
Line graph titled “Canadian job postings gradually recovering.” With a vertical axis of -60% to 10%, the graph shows Indeed Canada total job postings, 2020 vs 2019 % gap in trend through Sept. 11 (Indexed to Feb-01, 7-day avg.) Data labels highlight every-other Friday since mid-March. The gap was at 0% on February 14, and started dropping in March. By the end of April and into May, the gap was -49%. The gap started to recover in May, reaching -21% by Sep. 11. Caption added post-publication.

Unlike total postings, new postings dipped last week, easing to 10% below last year’s trend, from -3% a week earlier, reflecting a later Labour Day holiday this year. The gap in new postings was still closer to 2019 levels than total postings, helping drive the latter’s recovery. The question as we head into the fall is if they can maintain the momentum that’s prevailed over the past few months, that has helped boost opportunities available to Canadian job seekers.

Line graph comparing gap in new job postings vs 2019 holding fairly steady
Line graph titled “Gap in new job postings vs. last year holding fairly steady.” With a vertical axis of -75% to 30%, the graph shows Indeed Canada total job postings, 2020 vs 2019 % gap in trend through Sept. 1 (Indexed to Feb-01, 7-day avg.) Data labels highlight every-other Friday since mid-March. The gap was at 15% on February 14, and started dropping in March. By the end of April and into May, the gap was -70%. The gap started to recover in May, with some ups and down, reaching -10% by Sep. 11. Caption added post-publication.

The rebound in Canadian job postings continues to be broad-based across provinces. Total job posting gaps narrowed similarly to the nationwide 7 percentage-point improvement between August 7th and September 11th, across nearly all provinces, with P.E.I., Saskatchewan, and Manitoba the closest to last year’s trend, while no region stands out as particularly lagging behind. 

Table showing all provinces made progress in job posting amount in August 2020.
Table titled “All provinces made some progress over the past month.” The table compares the Indeed Canada total job postings: 2020 vs 2019 % gap in trend through Sep. 11 (7-day avg.) and the ppt. chg since Aug. 7, between 10 provinces. Canada total’s % gap in trend is -21% and +7% ppt. chg. The smallest gap is P.E.I. with 0% and a +16% ppt. chg. The largest gap is Quebec with -23% and a +8% ppt. chg. Caption added post-publication

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

To measure the trends in job postings, we calculated the 7-day moving average of the number of job postings on Indeed Canada. We index each day’s 7-day moving average to the start of February (Feb 1, 2020 = 100 for 2020 data, and so on).

We report how the trend in job postings this year differs from last year, in order to focus on the recent changes in labor market conditions due to COVID-19. For example: if job postings increased 30% from February 1, 2019, to April 10, 2019, but only 20% from February 1, 2020, to April 10, 2020, then the index would have risen from 100 to 130 in 2019 and 100 to 120 in 2020. The year-to-date trend in job postings would therefore be down 7.7% on April 10 (120 is 7.7% below 130) in 2020 relative to 2019.

For new postings, we calculate a similar metric but the underlying measure is the number of postings that have been on Indeed for seven days or less.

Information based on publicly available information on the Indeed Canada website (and other countries 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.