What Industries Are Hiring Right Now in Canada? 2026 Update

Job growth in Canada remains steady compared with the past year, according to research conducted for Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report. Over half of employers (55 per cent) at organizations of all sizes report that they’re recruiting talent to expand their teams, mostly to support company growth.

This aligns with Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey, which reported 134,300 more people working at the end of January 2026 compared to January 2025 (a 0.6 per cent rise year-over-year), although the pace of growth has slowed compared to earlier months. The Canadian unemployment rate decreased between December and January, to 6.5 per cent. While companies are seeking talent to support critical initiatives heading into 2026, many employers are struggling to find skilled candidates available for hire with 53 per cent of Canadian hiring managers citing it is more challenging to find skilled professionals compared to a year ago.

The Demand for Skilled Talent report highlights the latest data from Robert Half surveys of hiring managers and our analysis of a proprietary dataset of hundreds of thousands Canadian job postings across 4,900 unique job boards and company sites, including thousands of Robert Half placements. It is intended to help hiring managers make informed staffing decisions.

This post takes a deeper dive into our newly updated report. It provides an overview of key industries that are likely to recruit talent in the first half of 2026, and jobs expected to be in high demand.

What Industries Are Hiring Right Now in Canada?

Which types of industries have been adding jobs?
Business and professional services hiring trends
Consumer products hiring trends
Education services hiring trends
Financial services hiring trends
Government hiring trends
Manufacturing hiring trends
Tech and IT hiring trends
More insights
Methodology

Which types of industries have been adding jobs in second half of 2025?

The business and professional services, finance and insurance, manufacturing and distribution, and consumer products industries together contributed over 98,000 new positions to the Canadian economy in the second half of 2025, nearly half of all jobs during that period. Of those industries, finance and insurance saw significant year on year growth. And, although only collectively contributing to 10% of all new jobs (+22,200 jobs), government, wholesale trade, and the tech and IT industries also saw modest year-on-year growth contributing to overall job growth in Canada.

Business and professional services hiring trends

The business and professional services industries had the most job openings in the second half of 2025 (+55,900 jobs) compared with all other industries that Robert Half supports. These jobs were predominantly in technology (30 per cent), finance and accounting (29 per cent), and administrative and customer support (23 per cent).

Here’s a look, by functional area, at some top roles employers were recruiting for in the second half of 2025:

Finance and accounting

Senior accountant (+1,200 jobs)

Accounting clerk (+1,200 jobs)

AR/AP Clerk (+1,000 jobs)

Business analyst (+800 jobs)

Senior financial analyst (+800 jobs)

Bookkeeper (+700 jobs)

Tech and IT

Software engineer/developer (+4,500 jobs)

Full stack developer (+1,200 jobs)

Senior web developer (+600 jobs)

DevOps engineer (+600 jobs)

Administrative and customer support

Administrative assistant (+2,300 jobs)

Project assistant/coordinator (+2,300 jobs)

Customer service specialist (+1,900 jobs)

Receptionist (+1,000 jobs)

Data entry specialist (+900 jobs)

Office manager (+800 jobs)

Executive assistant (+700 jobs)

Consumer products hiring trends

Consumer products was the fourth-largest industry contributing to the job market in the second half of 2025, with 11,800 openings. Administrative and customer service roles made up nearly 45 per cent of the new professional openings within this industry, totaling nearly 5,200 jobs.

The most in-demand jobs in the consumer products industry in the second half of 2025 included:

Customer service specialist (+1,800 jobs)

Software engineer/developer (+700 jobs)

Customer service manager (+600 jobs)

Receptionist (+500 jobs)

Sales assistant (+500 jobs)

Education services hiring trends

Universities and educational organizations recruited talent for 3,800 job openings in Canada in the second half of 2025. These jobs were predominately in administrative and customer support (38 per cent), followed by finance and accounting (19 per cent), marketing and creative (15 per cent), and technology (17 per cent). Administrative assistant topped the list of job openings (+500 jobs).

Financial services hiring trends

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Employers in the financial services industry recruited talent for 15,700 jobs in the second half of 2025, a 19 per cent increase over the second half of 2024. Notably, the most significant year-on-year increase in job growth within this sector was observed in tech and IT functions followed by finance and accounting, which saw 42 and 31 percent rises, respectively. Legal and marketing hiring during this time period also saw modest growth within the financial services industry compared to 2024.

37 per cent of the jobs in this industry were specifically in finance and accounting functions, while 27 per cent were in technology and 22 per cent were in administrative and customer support.

The most in-demand jobs in the financial services industry in the second half of 2025 included:

Customer service specialist (+1,900 jobs)

Software engineer (+1,300 jobs)

Administrative assistant (+600 jobs)

Mortgage processor (+400 jobs)

Senior financial analyst (+300 jobs)

Government hiring trends

The Canadian public sector added close to 8,100 jobs in the second half of 2025, a 5 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. The largest share of these jobs was in administrative and customer support (39 per cent), followed by finance and accounting (24 per cent), and technology (14 per cent). Administrative assistant topped the list of job openings (+1,000 jobs), followed by customer service specialist (+300 jobs) and accounting clerk (+300 jobs).

Manufacturing hiring trends

Among the professional roles that Robert Half places in the manufacturing industry, there were over 14,500 new job openings added in the second half of 2025. These jobs were primarily in companies’ administrative and customer support (28 per cent), technology (27 per cent) and finance and accounting (24 per cent) departments. Software engineer/developer topped the list of job openings (+1,200 jobs), followed by administrative assistant (+1,000 jobs), and customer service specialist (+700 jobs).

Tech and IT hiring trends

The technology industry recruited talent for 6,600 jobs in the second half of 2025. Companies primarily hired for their technology functions (51 per cent) but also marketing and creative (16 per cent) and administrative and customer support (15 per cent) teams.

The following roles were in especially high demand in the technology industry:

Software engineer/developer (+1,300 jobs)

Customer service specialist (+400 jobs)

Full stack developer (+200 jobs)

Get more insights in Robert Half’s 2026 Demand for Skilled Talent report

Access Report

We know from our latest research for the Demand for Skilled Talent report that many employers in Canada have plans to hire, but another trend may work against their recruitment goals: Only 33 per cent of Canadian workers we surveyed said they plan to look for a new job during the first half of 2026. For tips on how to overcome hiring challenges in the current labour market, plus more data on Canadian hiring and employment trends in 2026, read the full Demand for Skilled Talent report.

See our industry-specific analyses of in-demand roles and hiring trends

Want to dig deeper into expected hiring trends for the first half of 2026? See Robert Half’s data and analysis for these top fields:

Finance and accounting

Technology

Marketing and creative

Legal

Administrative and customer support

Human resources

Methodology

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Industry calculations are based on job postings provided by Textkernel. Positions are categorized into more than 365 job titles within Robert Half's 2026 Canada 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 resource professions