Key points 

  • Total Canadian job postings on Indeed were up 52% on October 22, compared to early February 2020, supported by a solid rate of new postings being added.  

  • Postings in several sectors like software development, loading and stocking, human resources, and nursing continue to rise far above their pre-pandemic levels, while hiring appetite in food services is still elevated, but has cooled since the start of September.
  • Mentions of vaccine requirements in job postings continue to rise, and on October 22 were found in 3.2% of all English-language Canadian job postings on Indeed.

As of October 22, total Canadian job postings on Indeed were up 52% from their February 1, 2020 levels, after adjusting for seasonal trends. Posting growth paused in mid-September, but opportunities have started to edge up once again, with overall postings up six percentage points as a share of pre-pandemic postings since early September. 

Line graph titled “Canadian job postings well above pre-pandemic levels.”
Line graph titled “Canadian job postings well above pre-pandemic levels.” With a vertical axis ranging from -60% to 60%, Indeed tracked the percent change in total Canada job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021. As of October 22, total Canadian job postings on Indeed were up 52% from their February 1, 2020 levels.

Helping keep the overall level of Canadian job postings elevated has been the continued solid rate that new job postings are being added to Indeed (see methodology). Since the start of September, the number of job postings seven days old or less on Indeed has been on average 41% above where it stood on February 1, 2020, after adjusting for seasonal trends. This strong pace suggests job opportunities will remain plentiful entering the fourth quarter of the year, hopefully providing an auspicious environment for job seekers looking for new opportunities.

Line graph titled “New job postings being added at a rapid pace.”
Line graph titled “New job postings being added at a rapid pace.” With a vertical axis ranging from -80% to 60%, Indeed tracked the percent change in new Canada job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021. As of October 22, new job postings were up 43% compared to the start of February 2020. 

Job postings strong across a wide range of sectors

While the scope of the overall rebound has been impressive, job postings in some sectors far exceed economy-wide growth. Postings in areas like human resources, software development, and loading and stocking, are now approaching double their pre-pandemic levels, while demand for nurses isn’t far behind. 

Table titled “Job postings above pre-pandemic levels in almost all sectors, but recent momentum mixed.”
Table titled “Job postings above pre-pandemic levels in almost all sectors, but recent momentum mixed.” Indeed compared the percent change in total Canadian job postings between February 1, 2020 and October 22, 2021, across various sectors divided into sections “Stronger than average,” “Similar to average.” and “Weaker than average.” Postings in some sectors are now well above where they were in early 2020, including software development, loading and stocking, human resources, and nursing. 

Meanwhile, job postings are above their February 2020 levels similarly to the economy-wide trend across a range of sectors. In some cases, recent momentum also resembles the headline numbers, such as in administrative assistance, and installation and maintenance. However, other areas have been a bit softer of late, especially in food preparation and service, where postings remain elevated, but have eased recently, after soaring during the earlier stages of the vaccine-led reopening. Lastly, job postings have recovered, but aren’t as elevated compared to February 2020 levels in a range of pandemic-exposed sectors like hospitality and tourism, sports, and beauty and wellness. 

Vaccine requirements continue to rise 

Mentions of vaccine requirements in job descriptions of postings continued to rise in October, maintaining a trend that began in mid-August. As of October 22, 3.2% of Canadian English-language job postings included some mention of vaccine-related requirements in the job description. That share was nearly triple where it stood a month prior, and up over tenfold from its share on August 22.

Line graph titled “Vaccine requirement mentions climbing quickly.”
Line graph titled “Vaccine requirement mentions climbing quickly.” With a vertical axis from 0% to 3.5%, Indeed tracked the share of English-language Canadian job postings that mention vaccine requirements on a horizontal axis ranging from March 1, 2021 to October  22, 2021. As of October 22, 3.2% of job postings mentioned vaccine requirements, up from 0.3% on August 22.  

Vaccine requirements are mentioned at particularly high rates in job postings in various areas of healthcare, education, and social assistance, like childcare, personal care and home health, and nursing. That said, not all high-contact jobs are especially likely to include vaccine requirements in their descriptions, with mentions rarer in dental-related postings, as well as in beauty and wellness. Also lower on the list are job postings in retail, software development, and sales, though vaccine mentions in these areas have also grown substantially in recent months. 

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

Jobs postings mentioning vaccine requirements include English language postings that feature one of an extensive list of terms such as “vaccine required”, “requires vaccination,” “must have COVID vaccine,” in their job description. To compare requirements across different areas of the economy, we focused on sectors with more than 5,000 active English language job postings on September 24, 2021. 

All non-vaccine related figures in this blog post 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. This week we applied our quarterly revision, which updates seasonal factors and fixes data anomalies. Historical numbers have been revised and may differ from originally reported values.

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.