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Explore our Demand for Skilled Talent report to see what specializations employers need most.
The demand for skilled talent remains high in 2025 among Canadian finance and accounting leaders. At the end of December 2024, Statistics Canada reported a 2.7 per cent unemployment rate for the profession.
Low unemployment among skilled finance and accounting professionals isn’t the only obstacle Canadian companies face. Other challenges include budget constraints, technical debt, change management, and skills gaps due to the increasing demand for accountants and finance professionals with a financial systems background, industry-specific experience, and strong technology skills.
These challenges arrive at a critical time, as finance and accounting teams navigate complex digital transformation initiatives and address growing demands for real-time financial insights and forecasting. Many finance and accounting departments are struggling to modernize legacy systems while maintaining accurate reporting, putting additional pressure on team members.
To meet their hiring goals, companies must continue finding innovative ways to attract and retain both long-term and short-term finance and accounting talent. Approaches such as offering above-average compensation, promoting opportunities for career advancement and engaging recruiters to help you tap into the pool of passive job seekers are more important than ever.
Key trends in the finance and accounting job markets
There continues to be a limited supply of candidates in finance and accounting, leading to a staggering 93 per cent of hiring managers facing challenges to find skilled talent. As an alternative, just over half (53 per cent) of hiring managers in finance and accounting are seeking contract professionals to help move projects forward.
To combat hiring struggles, businesses should look at offering flexibility in when and where employees can work. According to the 2025 Canada Salary Guide From Robert Half, 47 per cent of employers offer hybrid work to attract and hire skilled finance and accounting talent, while 4 in 10 accounting and finance professionals not planning a job search say they want to stay put because of the work flexibility their current employer provides. If you are able to meet this key demand, not only will you attract candidates but you can boost company recruitment and retention efforts for the long-term.
Don’t underestimate the power of pay transparency. More than one third – 36 per cent – of finance and accounting job candidates say the lack of a salary range in a job description is a deal breaker for them. Keep this top of mind when you are recruiting for roles in 2025.
Visit the 2025 Canada Salary Guide From Robert Half for more Finance and Accounting hiring trends.
2025 hiring plans for finance and accounting managers
Finance and accounting managers have indicated their hiring plans for the first half of this year:
40 per cent are hiring for new permanent roles
57 per cent are filling vacated permanent positions
93 per cent are struggling to find skilled talent
Managers rank their strategic priorities for 2025
In 2025, Canadian finance and accounting teams will be primarily focused on:
Budgeting and forecasting
Accurate financial reporting and compliance
Improving planning, budgeting and forecasting processes
Profitability analysis
AI implementation
Upgrading finance technology
Departments will leverage more contract talent
An emerging trend for the finance job market in 2025 is a greater number of contract roles. Just over half – 53 per cent – of finance and accounting managers plan to increase their use of contract professionals., especially in these areas:
Finance
Financial reporting
Financial planning and analysis
Accounts payable, accounts receivable, and bookkeeping
About the Demand for Skilled Talent report
The Demand for Skilled Talent report by Robert Half is an authoritative source providing essential insights into 2025's employment trends. This report has offered a deep dive into Canada’s hiring landscape for over a decade, spotlighting challenges and strategies to attract and retain talent in today’s job market. It explores what employees seek in their careers, identifies common recruitment errors and suggests solutions. The report spans sectors like finance, technology, marketing, legal and human resources, proving crucial for business leaders and managers.
Data methodology
The surveys cited were developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives, hiring managers and workers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000-plus employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across Canada.
Over 200,000 new positions from more than 5,400 unique job boards/company sites independent job boards and company websites are represented in this report, including 6,000-plus placements from Robert Half. Positions are categorized into more than 350 job titles within Robert Half’s Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, and human resources professions.