Raphael Bohne
Research expert covering professional services
Staffing industry in Canada - statistics & facts
Broadly understood, the Canadian staffing industry consists of organizations providing employment placement (recruiting) services, temporary and contract staffing, executive recruitment services, and more general HR outsourcing and consulting. However, sometimes the term is used more narrowly to refer only to temporary and contract staffing, with the term ‘employment services’ used to capture the broader set of services. On this restricted definition of staffing services the total market size was 9.1 billion Canadian dollars in 2017 – placing Canada just outside the ten largest staffing markets worldwide. On the broader definition, industry revenues were 14.5 billion Canadian dollars in 2017.
Temporary staffing is the largest component of the industry, with an estimated market size of 9.2 billion Canadian dollars in 2019. The private sector is the greatest user of temporary staffing, with industrial workers being the most common – likely a result of the importance of the manufacturing, energy and mining sectors to the Canadian economy. One difference compared to many other markets is the low prevalence of temporary healthcare workers in Canada, who accounted for only two percent of revenue in 2018. This compares to around 10 percent in the United States. This difference is often explained by Canada’s government-run health service being more resistant to temporary staffing than the (mainly) non-government health service in the United States – although it still remains possible for Canada’s healthcare staffing industry to grow in the future.
The Canadian staffing market is dominated by large multinational companies, with the largest providers – Allegis Group, Adecco and Randstad – also being the largest providers globally. All three of these companies held an eight percent market share. The fifth-largest provider – Procom – is a Canadian company.
Temporary staffing is the largest component of the industry, with an estimated market size of 9.2 billion Canadian dollars in 2019. The private sector is the greatest user of temporary staffing, with industrial workers being the most common – likely a result of the importance of the manufacturing, energy and mining sectors to the Canadian economy. One difference compared to many other markets is the low prevalence of temporary healthcare workers in Canada, who accounted for only two percent of revenue in 2018. This compares to around 10 percent in the United States. This difference is often explained by Canada’s government-run health service being more resistant to temporary staffing than the (mainly) non-government health service in the United States – although it still remains possible for Canada’s healthcare staffing industry to grow in the future.
The Canadian staffing market is dominated by large multinational companies, with the largest providers – Allegis Group, Adecco and Randstad – also being the largest providers globally. All three of these companies held an eight percent market share. The fifth-largest provider – Procom – is a Canadian company.
