Help-Wanted Index

About the Help-Wanted Index

The Conference Board of Canada’s Help-Wanted Index is an indicator of the number of new jobs advertised online. Our empirical analysis has shown that variations in the number of jobs posted online are generally followed by similar variations in employment in the ensuing months. Thus, the index can be used to predict near-term employment trends.

The Help-Wanted Index is based on the seasonally adjusted number of new, unduplicated jobs posted online during the month across 79 Canadian job-posting websites. Raw data are collected by Wanted Technologies, a Canada-based firm that provides information and analysis on hiring demand. The monthly Help-Wanted Index does not account for existing ads posted during previous months.

In addition to the Help-Wanted Index, we construct the Indicator of Labour Market Tightness. The indicator represents the ratio of the number of unemployed individuals to the number of available ads posted online. The number of unduplicated available ads includes the total ads available online during the period under review.

All data are seasonally adjusted, and are available for Canada, the provinces, and 27 Canadian cities.
The Help-Wanted Indexes and the Indicator of Labour Market Tightness are available from May 2005. Data from 2005 to 2007 are heavily influenced by the addition of new websites surveyed. From July 2009 onward, the data are collected from the same 79 online job boards.

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Help Wanted Index

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The Help-Wanted Index is an indicator of the number of new jobs advertised online. Our empirical analysis has shown that variations in the number of jobs posted online are generally followed by similar variations in employment in the ensuing months. Thus, the index can be used to predict near-term employment trends. Data is released monthly and is available for Canada, the Provinces and 27 CMAs.