There’s no pain quite like the monotonous grind of a job search.
It can be a tough job market right now, especially with the looming threat of U.S. tariffs and artificial intelligence. Toronto social media groups have become saturated with stories of job-seekers applying to hundreds, even thousands of opportunities before receiving an offer.
At the same time, certain job sectors — especially administrative and support roles — are starved for workers, according to a new report from recruitment firm Randstad.
“Overall, in 2025, the job market remains competitive,” said Marie-Pier Bédard, executive vice-president for Randstad Canada. “We receive between 40 to 300 applications for job positions, depending on the industry … for a role in health care, it will be more around 40 (applications). For IT positions, it’s at least around 300.”
Things are slowly improving; the Canadian economy added 76,000 jobs in January, bringing the unemployment rate down to 6.6 per cent. “Even if the market is still competitive, it is a little bit less than it was in previous years,” Bédard noted.
Jobs surging in demand across Canada in 2025
Randstad analyzed job postings on digital platforms to find those with the largest growth in demand year-over-year. As such, jobs that have always been high in demand, like nurses, have not been included in this list.
Take a look at which roles made the list, and how much they stand to earn on average:
- Administrative assistant — annual salary from $47,000 to $59,000
- Bookkeeper — annual salary from $56,000 to $62,000
- Sales associate — annual salary from $61,000 to $81,000
- Customer service representative — annual salary from $48,000 to $61,000
- Receptionist — annual salary from $43,000 to $53,000
- Office administrator — annual salary from $60,000 to $78,000
- General labourer — hourly wage between $19.70 and $24.10
- Driver — hourly wage between $22 and $27
- Pharmacy assistant — annual salary from $43,800 to $50,200
- Forklift operator — hourly wage between $21.60 and $27
- Warehouse labourer — hourly wage between $21.60 and $27
- Financial analyst — annual salary from $89,000 to $107,000
- HR generalist — annual salary from $71,000 to $95,000
- Electrician — hourly wage between $35 and $44
- Estimator — annual salary from $73,000 to $97,000
Bédard noted that work-life balance and flexibility have become top of mind for job-seekers. It’s become far harder for employers to find workers willing to come to the office, leading to a surge in demand for in-person positions.
“That’s the first thing that stood out for me (about the list), the number of jobs that you need to physically be there for,” she said.
Another insight is the demand for customer service expertise and interpersonal skills, Bédard continued, advising jobseekers to build on those soft skills before entering the market.
Toronto jobs growing in demand in 2025
Randstad also looked at in-demand jobs across Canada’s largest cities, including Toronto. These are the top five positions, along with their average pay in the city.
- Administrative assistant — annual salary from $44,000 to 70,000
- Bookkeeper — annual salary from $52,000 to $75,000
- Office administrator — annual salary from $57,000 to $93,000
- Truck driver — hourly wage between $21.50 and $28.70
- Financial analyst — annual salary from $80,000 to $96,000
Life is more expensive in Toronto. Workers need to earn $26 an hour — nearly $9 more than the current minimum wage — to make a living wage, according to a recent report. Another group estimates Torontonians need to make between $61,654 and $83,680 annually to “thrive” in the city.
The growing cost of living has led hundreds of thousands of Torontonians to leave the city for more affordable pastures.
Trump tariffs, AI may shake up the market
U.S. President Donald Trump has paused his threatened 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods — and 10 per cent duties on oil and gas — until early March. Should these come into force, they could cost hundreds of thousands of Canadians their jobs and push the country into a recession, economists warn. Some Canadian manufacturers, like pantyhose manufacturer Sheertex, have already temporarily laid off swathes of staff ahead of the tariffs.
The exact impact on the job market is unclear.
“I wish I had a crystal ball,” Bédard said. “But there are specific roles that might be positively impacted, too. We were thinking, for example, (jobs in) logistics and transport might be roles where there will be positive impact,” due to forced adjustments in Canada’s supply chain in the event of a trade war.
Otherwise, we have such a scarcity of people in skilled trades like electricians that the demand would most likely remain even if a Canada-U. S. trade war occurs, she continued.
Regarding generative AI, Bédard said the technology hasn’t replaced many jobs in Canada so far. That said, she has seen a surge in job postings requiring experience using AI as a requirement: “There was five times more mention of AI in a job posting than the previous year,” she said.
For now, at least, AI isn’t replacing workers — it’s considered to be more a tool to increase efficiency and productivity, she added. But as the technology continues to advance, it’s hard to difficult to predict where it will go from here.
