School’s out and that means it’s time for teens and secondary schools students to start sending out their résumés for summer employment.
But how does the Canadian job summer market look this year, and what jobs are most in demand?
READ MORE: 5 mistakes you’re making when looking for a job
According to a report by Indeed Canada, the summer job market is expected to be a good one this year. Job postings on the job searching website have increased 15 per cent compared to the same time last year.
“The summer job market is on a big upswing among both Canadian employers and job seekers,” says Brendon Bernard, economist at Indeed Canada. “We were surprised to see summer jobs posts as a share of total postings rise further this year following solid growth in 2017. Last summer, one-off factors, such as the Canada 150 celebration, likely boosted demand for summer positions. To see further growth this year is a really encouraging sign for those looking for work this summer.”
Summer, Bernard says, is typically a busy time for job searching because of the timing of school ending for students. It’s also a time when weather-dependent industries are likely to adjust their searches to match rising demand for certain positions during hotter months.
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Summer job posted this year are spread across a wide range of sectors, Bernard says, with many geared towards teens and young adults.
“These jobs often involve supervising children on summer break, whose parents are at work, such as babysitters and camp counsellors,” he explains. “Office work, as well as weather-dependent roles, such as labourer and painters, also rank high on the list.”
The summer job titles, ranked by posting volume based on Indeed Canada’s data, includes:
- Student assistant
- Labourer
- Customer service representative
- Summer associate
- Babysitter/nanny
- Camp Counselor
- Sales representative
- Instructor
- Painter
- Maintenance person
As for job seekers, some typically search for summer jobs that directly relate to their future career plans, Bernard points out. For others, however, a summer job will be their first launch into the world of work, which requires resilience and responsibility.
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And job postings this year seem to be the greatest in more rural provinces, the report finds.
“The typically longer winters in more rural provinces is a likely factor behind the higher share of summer job posts these regions, as it means a shorter time-window to perform weather-dependent work such as construction,” Bernard says. “We saw a similar pattern across U.S. cities, where summer job posts are generally most common in cities with big seasonal weather changes.”
Before you go flipping through the online ads, however, it’s best that the job seeker figure out what they’d like to do first, Lisa Kay of Peak Performance, advises.
Next, carefully plan out your résumé and make sure to have someone else look it over for errors, Shawn DSouza of Workopolis adds, then clean up your social media accounts.
Once those things are in order, you’re good to go.
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