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Canada Is Seeing A Big Spike In Summer Jobs, According To Indeed

It's not just the temperatures that are heating up.
Witthaya Prasongsin via Getty Images

Summer job season is heating up, and demand for positions and employees to fill them are both on the rise, new data shows.

According to a report from job site Indeed.com, summer job posts as a share of total postings are up 15 per cent from the year before as of May, on top of a 23 per cent jump from the previous year.

Searches for summer jobs as a share of total job searches are also up 10 per cent.

Watch: Now's the time for teens to apply for summer jobs, experts say. Story continues below.

Report author and Indeed Canada economist Brendon Bernard told HuffPost Canada the list of most common job postings shows a lot of positions are geared towards students and teenagers returning to school in the fall.

"We see some jobs like babysitter and camp counselor, these are roles where the person is going to be supervising out-of-school children while their parents are at work," Bernard said.

Many of the in-demand jobs are also seasonal, tied to industries like construction and home renovation that are more active during the summer months.

Jobs like babysitting or working as a nanny are geared towards students and teenagers returning to school in the fall.
Getty Images
Jobs like babysitting or working as a nanny are geared towards students and teenagers returning to school in the fall.

Bernard said job-seekers will also adjust their searches depending on what industry they're in.

"Job seekers with experience in weather-dependent industries like construction are aware that demand for this type of work is really concentrated in this summer month — they're likely to adjust their job searches to reflect those different realities."

Rural areas are seeing more demand for summer jobs, because of the seasonality of the jobs there, Bernard said.

"I think an explanation of that is that in the more rural provinces, especially up north, the winters are so long that any weather-dependent industry like construction, for example, really has a short time window for when they can perform their work."

American students spending summers in school, doing extracurriculars

The summer job market is also hotter in Canada than the U.S. The share of job postings containing the word "summer," and the share of searches for summer jobs, were twice as high as those of our southern neighbours.

According to the report, a more competitive application process for the top U.S. post-secondary schools is one reason why more teenagers and students may be spending their annual time off doing extracurricular activities or attending summer school, rather than looking for a job.

The report also points to the 2001 and 2008-09 recessions, which forced more American adults to look for jobs traditionally held by teens, like part-time retail or customer service jobs.

These are the top summer jobs in Canada, according to Indeed.com:

Student assistant

Labourer

Customer service representative

Summer associate

Babysitter/Nanny

Camp counselor

Sales representative

Instructor

Painter

Maintenance person

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