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. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$69,000
Junior
$46,000
Senior or agency top biller
$110,000
Job Bank's national median is $33.33 an hour, about $69,000 a year full time. 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.
$45,000 to $52,000
Recruitment coordinator or junior agency recruiter
Agencies hire people with no experience and train them. The trade-off is a low base and pressure to bill. Corporate coordinator jobs pay a little more and are steadier.
15 to 25% of first-year salary
What a client pays an agency for a permanent hire
Place someone in a $100,000 job and the agency bills $15,000 to $25,000. The recruiter keeps a share, often 20 to 40% of the fee. That is how top agency recruiters earn six figures.
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.
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, long searches, top pay.
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 $5,000, 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 groups recruiters with human resources and recruitment officers, so the pay figures on this page include corporate HR staff. Agency recruiters on commission are the ones who stretch the range at both ends.
Last checked September 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.