According to a report by the recruitment firm Express Employment Professionals (EEP), 51 per cent of Canadian companies plan to increase their employee count in 2025.
“I think just because companies are optimistic about growing to be profitable, they may have to hire more people and that the businesses that we’re working with are seeing increased volumes of job searches,” said Brent Pollington, owner of the EEP’s branch in Vancouver.
This market research survey was conducted among 505 Canadian hiring decision-makers who help hire employees at their company.
The report also concluded that 41 per cent of companies plan to keep their employee numbers the same and only 8 per cent plan to decrease their workforce in the first half of 2025.
According to Pollington, recent U.S. and Canadian politics are helpful for business. A new Republican U.S. president combined with a Canadian election coming as soon as the spring, which is expected to result in Conservative leadership, is favourable for business in the country.
“They tend to be favourable outcomes for small businesses and business in general as these [Conservative governments] are more economically focused,” said Pollington.
The other large factor playing into these survey results is the lingering effects of the economic devastation left by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have been negatively impacted by COVID,” said Pollington. “We then went through an interest rate hike that negatively impacted businesses’ ability to access debt at a rate that was conducive to being able to leverage that and grow their businesses.”
St. Thomas University’s career development advisor Erin Feicht says that the numbers from this report may be too good to be true for graduating students.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Feicht. “It would be beneficial for all of Canada if employers were hiring more, especially students who are looking for relevant work in the things they are studying.”
Feicht works individually with STU students to help them explore employment opportunities and reach their career goals. She said that it is important for people to remember that their occupational searching strategies shouldn’t be impacted by a report such as this.
Her view on these types of surveys is that they can be vague and it can be difficult to tell if they are true. Feicht suggests that students visit the NB jobs websites for relevant and prospective information about their specific field of interest.
“Now until you graduate, connecting with the people who you’d be interested in working for, that’s a huge key,” said Feicht. “For example, our career fair has lots of employers coming who are looking to hire so coming there and talking to them and asking them questions is a way to get your foot in the door.”
The STU Career Week will be taking place from Feb. 10 to 14 with free career development workshops, information and networking opportunities.
