To provide accurate and timely employment forecasts for business leaders, Express Employment Professionals International Headquarters commissions an ongoing Job Insights survey to track employment and hiring trends across a wide range of industries.
INSIGHT: Hiring Demand Continues Through Challenging Conditions
Canadian hiring decision-makers are becoming more positive about the future of the workforce, with the most common feelings attributed to hiring in 2022 being optimistic (35%), confident (33%), and hopeful (33%). According to hiring decision-makers, in the second half of 2022:
- 45% plan to increase the number of employees at their company
- 48% expect no change to the number of employees
- 4% anticipate a decrease in employee count
INSIGHT: Inflation Affecting Wages, Revenue, and Future Gains
Companies have been faced with many challenges over the past few years. Unfortunately, there continue to be new issues companies face – most recently, a generational rise in inflation. Over the past two years, the inflation rate has increased to a level last seen in the 1980s. Nearly all Canadian hiring decision-makers (91%) say their company has been impacted by this rise in inflation, with more than half (56%) reporting it has had a major or moderate impact on their company.
The high inflation rate has caused companies to make difficult decisions, including:
- Raise prices (44%),
- Absorb additional costs (37%)
- Reduce transportation (17%)
- Adopt new technology to automate tasks/processes (16%)
- Outsource work (14%)
- Turn down work opportunities (12%)
Hiring costs look to be a trend moving forward, with expectations for wage increases has been steadily increasing over the past two years:
- 45% in the first half of 2020
- 51% in the first half of 2021
- 66% in the first half of 2022
More than 3 in 5 Canadian hiring decision-makers (63%) say their company is taking steps to make hiring easier, including higher starting salaries (20%) and offering hiring bonuses (17%).
INSIGHT: Soft Skills Essential for Workers, Leading to Reskilling
While organizations were forced to adapt to navigate the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, In the search for potential applicants with their company, Canadian hiring decision-makers commonly look for certain soft skills in their applicants. Among the top skills deemed essential or very important are a willingness to learn (85%), dependability (84%), problem-solving skills (78%), and adaptability (78%).
Other important skills companies look for include:
- Communication (77%)
- Initiative (76%)
- Critical thinking (73%)
- Company cultural fit (72%)
Nearly 3 in 5 cite creativity (58%), and half cite leadership skills (50%) as absolutely essential or very important in an applicant.
The survey was conducted online within Canada by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express between May 3 and May 23, 2022, among 504 Canadian hiring decision-makers (defined as adults ages 18+ in Canada who are employed full-time or self-employed, work at companies with more than one employee, and have full/significant involvement in hiring decisions at their company). Data were weighted where necessary by company size to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.
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