Canadian Summer Hiring Rebounds Following Years of Steady Decline
The summer job market has avoided a fourth consecutive year of declining postings, though youth and seasonal workers are unlikely to see a strong rebound in employment opportunities, according to a new report from hiring site Indeed Canada.
The average number of listings for summer jobs was up 4 per cent year-over-year as of the week of May 8, Indeed noted in its analysis. But demand was still down 36 per cent from the same week in 2022, when summer hiring was at its peak. Overall postings from January to May, when the bulk of summer jobs are typically listed, were “stable” compared with 2025, according to the report.
Canadian youth have experienced a rough job market for several years, owing to a sluggish economy, weaker demand for labour and hotter competition for positions as the population surged between 2022 and 2024. As of April, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 was 14.3 per cent, well above the prepandemic average of 10.8 per cent.
While summer job postings have stabilized, the youth jobs situation is unlikely to see a major improvement this year, Indeed Canada senior economist Brendon Bernard said in an interview.
Mr. Bernard noted that the youth employment rate – the share of the population age 15 to 24 that is working – would see a “subdued” increase over the summer, consistent with last year’s increase of just over nine percentage points from March to July. Under tighter labour market conditions in the summer of 2022 and before the pandemic, that jump was about 11 percentage points.
Mr. Bernard said that the 2022 market was unusual, as spending increased quite rapidly after the pandemic eased, which led to a hotter labour market and increased hiring. The decline since then reflects higher interest rates and cooler economic activity, especially in per capita terms as the population grew sharply, he said.
Temporary jobs at summer camps made up the largest share at 13 per cent of total summer listings, down from 15 per cent in 2025. That reduction was offset by increases in other fields such as painters and warehouse workers.
The report measures summer hiring intent by tracking the average number of job postings with “summer” in the title.
As with the wider labour market, the availability of summer jobs depends on expectations around consumer, business and government spending. Additionally, according to Mr. Bernard, if overall hiring is weak, people who can’t find higher paying jobs end up retaking their job from the previous summer, leading to fewer opportunities for new entrants to the summer market.
Mr. Bernard said he did not see artificial intelligence as a significant reason why jobs have declined since 2022.
“Especially for recent graduates, it has gotten tougher to land professional jobs. AI is potentially one contributor to that; I don’t think it’s the only one,” he said.
Instead, he pointed to declining employment for teenagers in retail, accommodation and food services as the biggest factor for the drop-off.
Mr. Bernard said the patterns in summer jobs have so far mirrored the wider labour market. Referring to internal data from Indeed, he said overall job postings have also been flat over the past year after declines in previous years.
“I don’t think we’ve seen much of a rebound yet,” he said.
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
