Find the right person for the job and convince them to take it. Part sales, part matchmaking.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $69,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $46,000 at the lower end to about $110,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
From nothing up to about $50,000, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$69,000
Lower end
$46,000
Upper end
$110,000
Job Bank's national figures for 2023 to 2024: a median of $33.33 an hour, about $69,000 a year at 40 hours a week, with a lower end of $22 and an upper end of $52.73 an hour. Corporate recruiters earn a salary. Agency recruiters earn a lower base plus commission on each hire they place, so their income can go well past this range or fall below it.
$50.87 an hour
The Job Bank median in Nunavut, the highest in Canada
Among the provinces Ontario and Prince Edward Island are highest at $34.87, and Manitoba is lowest at $27. Agencies hire people with no experience and pay a low base plus a share of each placement fee.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $50,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Zero is real here. Agencies hire people straight out of retail and sales and train them on the desk, and that is how a large share of recruiters started. The high end is a four year business or HR (human resources) degree at a full price university plus a recruiting certificate. Employers usually pay for the certificates, so the degree is the only part you would carry yourself.
Cheap to enter. What you need is the ability to talk to strangers all day and keep going after no.
Commission and bonuses
At agencies and search firms. Corporate roles usually pay a smaller annual bonus.
Health and dental
Standard at corporate employers and larger agencies.
Remote work
Phone, video and email are the tools. Fully remote roles are common.
Pension
In government and public-sector recruiting.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Two doors in: a staffing agency that trains you, or a coordinator job on a corporate HR (human resources) team.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Any job with phones and people: retail, call centre, fundraising, sports coaching.
Post-secondary, common
0 to 4 years
A 2-year college diploma or 4-year degree in HR (human resources), business or psychology. Agencies do not always require it.
First job
1 to 2 years
Agency: sourcing candidates and screening calls for a senior recruiter. Corporate: recruitment coordinator booking interviews and posting jobs.
Recruiter
By year 2 to 3
Your own open roles and your own clients or hiring managers. At an agency, your own billing target.
Senior recruiter, talent lead or executive search
5 or more years
Specializing in one industry, or moving to headhunting senior executives.
English
Job ads, emails, interview notes.
Business
How companies decide to hire.
Psychology
Reading people in an interview.
Drama or debate
Confidence on the phone with strangers.
No credential is required to be a recruiter. Voluntary options exist: the Certified Personnel Consultant program from ACSESS (Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services), the Registered Professional Recruiter program from the Institute of Professional Management, and the HR (human resources) designations from HRPA (Human Resources Professionals Association) in Ontario or CPHR (Chartered Professionals in Human Resources) elsewhere. Some provinces, including Ontario, require temp and recruiting agencies themselves to hold a licence, and recruiting foreign workers has its own rules.
Quebec adds a CEGEP (public college) step, has a professional order for HR (human resources) whose title is optional, and licenses recruitment agencies.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Quebec high school ends a year earlier than elsewhere, so CEGEP comes next. Any job with customers or phones is good practice.
DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 or 3 years
Social Science (300.A1), a 2 year pre-university program, or the 3 year Business Administration and Management Techniques DEC (410.G0), which covers HR tasks. English at Vanier and Champlain.
Bachelor's in HR or industrial relations, common
3 years
Degrees at Université Laval, Université de Montréal, UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal), HEC Montréal (a business school) and others give direct access to the CRHA (certified HR professional) title.
First job
Varies
Sourcing and screening at an agency, or a coordinator job on a company HR team.
CRHA title, optional
A few months to process
The Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés (the Quebec order of certified HR professionals) protects the title, not the job. Other degrees go through an equivalence exam or portfolio.
Personnel placement agencies, and agencies that recruit temporary foreign workers, must hold a licence from the CNESST (Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, the Quebec labour standards and workplace safety board) to operate in Quebec. The licence belongs to the agency, not to each recruiter. The CNESST keeps a public register of licence holders, so you can check an agency before you join it.
Taxes included. The order says 79% of members have their dues paid back by their employer. The title also needs proof of French.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Technical recruiting
Software, engineering, health care. Hard-to-fill roles pay the biggest fees.
Executive search
Headhunting directors and executives. Retained fees and long searches.
Talent acquisition lead
Running recruiting for a whole company. Salary and stability instead of commission.
Own agency
Experienced recruiters often start their own boutique firm.
Sourcing skills
Boolean search, LinkedIn Recruiter, applicant tracking systems.
HR (human resources) designation
CHRP (Certified Human Resources Professional) in Ontario or CPHR (Chartered Professional in Human Resources) elsewhere. Helps move into corporate HR.
French
National companies and the federal government recruit in both languages.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Morning searching LinkedIn and the database for candidates who fit a new role, then messaging 30 of them. Screening calls with the few who reply. A meeting with a hiring manager who wants a candidate that does not exist for the budget. Booking interviews, chasing feedback, prepping a candidate before their final round. Late afternoon: an offer call, a negotiation over salary, and either a yes or a candidate who takes another job. Agency recruiters also spend hours cold-calling companies to win new job orders.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
ACSESS (Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services) publishes the Canadian Staffing Index, a monthly measure of how much temporary labour agencies supply. It moves with the economy, which is why recruiters feel a downturn before almost anyone else.
Most permanent placement fees are contingent: the agency earns nothing unless its candidate is hired and stays past a guarantee period, often 90 days. That is why agency recruiters push so hard.
Job Bank counts about 52,100 human resources and recruitment officers in Canada in 2023, and only 17% of them are 50 or older.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
People and operations first, then the rest of the field. See every career in business and money.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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