2025 Canada Job Market: Admin and Customer Support Hiring Trends

Salary and hiring trends

Administrative and customer support

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Top job trends in Canada for hiring admin and customer support
In-demand roles in the admin and customer support job market
Administrative and customer support managers’ hiring plans in 2025
Strategic priorities for 2025
2025 Canada job market contract talent trends
About the Demand for Skilled Talent report

The demand for skilled talent remains high in 2025 among Canadian administrative and customer support leaders – at the end of 2024, Statistics Canada reported a 2.7 per cent unemployment rate for the former and 4.3 per cent for the latter.

Low unemployment among skilled administrative and customer service professionals isn’t the only obstacle Canadian companies face. Many are struggling to attract candidates with a range of required abilities from traditional administrative know-how to project management expertise.

Complicating these challenges is the rapid advance of technology, which requires digital fluency and regular upskilling of existing staff. Many administrative and customer support teams find themselves caught between the immediate need to maintain service levels and the long-term imperative to modernize their processes. They need agile teams capable of both managing routine operations and driving innovation.

To meet their administrative and customer support hiring goals, Canadian companies must continue finding innovative ways to attract and retain both long-term and short-term talent. Approaches such as offering above-average compensation and engaging recruiters to help tap into the pool of passive job seekers are more important than ever.

Top job trends in Canada for hiring admin and customer support

For the first half of 2025, 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, logistics, office services, and management skills.

Of note, 42 per cent of admin managers report they are expanding their departments due to company growth, while half are hiring for vacated permanent positions. 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.

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. According to the 2025 Canada Salary Guide From Robert Half, many of these professionals value flexibility and feel underpaid – and in-demand professionals who feel undervalued or underpaid are quick to seek new opportunities. 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.

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

In-demand roles in the admin and customer support job market

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 manager

Customer service specialist

Executive assistant

Logistics specialist

Receptionist/Front desk coordinator

Senior executive assistant

Administrative and customer support managers’ hiring plans in 2025

In the first half of 2025, what are the key hiring focuses for administrative and customer support managers?

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

50 per cent are concentrated on backfilling permanent roles left vacant

A striking 93 per cent struggle to find skilled talent

Strategic priorities for 2025

For administrative and customer support leaders, 2025 is all about strategic advancements in these crucial areas:

Customer satisfaction

Cybersecurity and data privacy

Technology upgrades or integration

Quality assurance

Data analytics for performance management

Customer and stakeholder engagement

2025 Canada job market contract talent trends

Nearly half – 49 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 administrative and executive assistants, customer service, call centres, office services and management, data entry, and receptionists.

About the Demand for Skilled Talent report

The Demand for Skilled Talent report by Robert Half is an authoritative source providing essential insights into 2025'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

The surveys cited were developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives, hiring managers and workers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000-plus employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across Canada.

Over 200,000 new positions from more than 5,400 unique job boards/company sites independent job boards and company websites are represented in this report, including 6,000-plus placements from Robert Half. Positions are categorized into more than 350 job titles within Robert Half’s Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, and human resources professions.

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