2024 Canada Job Market: Admin and Customer Support Hiring Trends

The demand for skilled talent remains high in 2024 for Canadians. To meet their hiring goals, companies must continue finding innovative ways to attract and retain both long-term and short-term talent. For administrative and customer support positions, businesses value tech-savvy professionals with strong soft skills. In-demand admin professionals who feel undervalued or underpaid are quick to seek new opportunities.

Approaches such as offering above-average compensation and engaging recruiters to help you tap into the pool of passive job seekers are more important than ever. In addition, attracting skilled talent is increasingly about how well a company can provide a healthy work/life balance, including being willing to adapt to the desired work styles of high-caliber professionals. As more employers implement return-to-office (RTO) policies, companies that can offer adaptable work schedules, including hybrid or fully remote options, are particularly poised to distinguish themselves in the talent market.

For the first half of 2024, administrative and customer support managers across Canada are prepared to hire for both permanent and contract positions, according to the latest Robert Half Canada Demand for Skilled Talent report. Hiring managers also shared that they anticipate increased competition for jobs that call for administrative, customer service and call centre, data entry, and management skills. The challenge hiring managers in this sector face? The lack of current admin and customer support workers who are willing to leave their current jobs.

To attract and hire skilled candidates, 44 per cent of administrative and customer support managers say they are evaluating candidates outside of their company’s geographic area to staff remote positions. Nearly the same amount (46 per cent) of admin managers also report they are expanding their departments due to company growth. This outlook for the customer support job market should be a positive indicator for admin job seekers – as long as employers can align to candidate needs.

Learn more about admin job market trends in the latest Robert Half Canada Salary Guide

The following positions are in the top 25 per cent of administrative and customer support roles in demand, according to analysis of thousands of job postings and Robert Half placements.

Administrative Assistant

Call Centre Specialist

Customer Service Specialist

Data Entry Specialist

Executive Assistant

Office Manager

Project Assistant/Coordinator

Receptionist

Infographic of administrative and customer service roles in highest demand, with starting salary ranges.

In the first half of 2024, what are the key hiring focuses for administrative and customer support managers?

54 per cent are geared towards hiring new staff for permanent roles

37 per cent are concentrated on backfilling permanent roles left vacant

A striking 85 per cent struggle to find skilled talent

For administrative and customer support leaders, 2024 is all about strategic advancements in these crucial areas:

1. Employee training and development

2. Operational efficiency

3. Workforce management

4. Multi-channel support

5. Customer satisfaction

A significant 76 per cent of Canadian administrative and customer support managers plan to boost their workforce flexibility by integrating more contract talent in the first half of the year. This strategic shift is not just about meeting immediate staffing needs; it's about bringing in specialized skills for key roles that are pivotal in today’s market. Expect to see a surge in demand for contract professionals in roles such as executive assistants, project assistants/coordinators, customer service specialists, managerial positions in call centers and office service specialists.

Here’s a snapshot of administrative and customer support job market search trends for the first half of 2024 in Canada:

Only 12 per cent of employees in these sectors plan to look for a new job

14 per cent are actively job hunting

A notable 74 per cent are not considering a job search at all

With most administrative and customer support professionals’ content in their current roles, businesses face challenges luring them away. Companies should focus on offering above-average salaries, flexible work options and opportunities for career growth to appeal to passive candidates who aren't seeking new roles but might be tempted by the right offer.

Learn more tactics for attracting top administrative and customer support specialist.

The Demand for Skilled Talent report by Robert Half is an authoritative source providing essential insights into 2024's employment trends. This report has offered a deep dive into Canada’s hiring landscape for over a decade, spotlighting challenges and strategies to attract and retain talent in today’s job market. It explores what employees seek in their careers, identifies common recruitment errors and suggests solutions. The report spans sectors like finance, technology, marketing, legal and human resources, proving crucial for business leaders and managers.

Data methodology

This report's in-demand role data is collated from Robert Half placements, Statistics Canada information, and job postings TalentNeuron. It encompasses over one hundred thousand new positions from hundreds of independent job boards and company websites, including over 8,000 placements from Robert Half Canada. Positions are categorized to over 350 job titles within Robert Half Canada’s 2024 Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the administrative and customer support, finance and accounting, human resources, legal, marketing and creative, and technology professions.

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