Canadian wholesale and retail employment increased in June, reversing part of the sector’s sharp decline from the previous month. The improvement, however, leaves the industry with substantially fewer workers than it employed one year ago and raises questions about how retailers are staffing stores while continuing to expand in selected markets.
Employment across wholesale and retail trade increased by 16,400 positions in June, according to Statistics Canada’s latest Labour Force Survey. The gain followed a loss of approximately 35,000 positions in May and brought employment in the combined sector to nearly 2.94 million.
Despite the monthly rebound, wholesale and retail trade employed approximately 71,900 fewer people than it did in June 2025, representing a year-over-year decline of 2.4 per cent.
The figures present a complicated picture for Canadian retail. Companies continue to announce new stores, expanded flagships and market-entry plans, while employment across the broader wholesale and retail category remains well below last year.
Suzanne Sears, CEO of Best Retail Careers International and Luxury Careers Canada, said the disconnect between visible retail expansion and the wider employment figures deserves greater attention.
“We keep hearing about retailers opening stores and expanding, but where are the jobs?” Sears said. “Retail employment continues to diminish. When you look at the national figures, you have to ask where the employment associated with all of this expansion is actually showing up.”
The national figures do not mean every retailer is reducing its workforce. New locations must still be staffed, and hiring conditions vary considerably by company, category and market. Employment gains at expanding retailers can also be offset by closures, restructurings and workforce reductions elsewhere in the industry.
The scale of the annual decline nevertheless suggests that Canada’s broader retail employment base has contracted even as stronger operators continue investing in selected stores and markets.
Lean Staffing Creates Risks for the Store Experience
Labour is one of the most significant controllable expenses for a retailer, making staffing an obvious area for companies to examine when sales are uncertain or margins are under pressure. Sears said retailers risk reducing staffing to a point where the savings begin to undermine the customer experience they are trying to create.
“You cannot keep talking about quality service, customer experience and the finest products when there are not enough retail employees in the store,” Sears said. “Retailers may have beautiful stores and valuable merchandise, but they still need enough staff on the sales floor to deliver that value.”
Canadian retailers have increasingly invested in larger stores, elevated merchandising, experiential concepts and improved presentation. Those investments still depend on employees who can welcome customers, explain products, manage fitting rooms, replenish merchandise and complete transactions.
A visually impressive store can accomplish only so much when customers cannot find assistance or the employees who are present are responsible for too many competing tasks.
“The easiest way to improve the bottom line in the short term is to reduce staffing,” Sears said. “But retailers continue to say that service and customer experience are priorities. There is a real issue when stores carry significant value and have very few employees available to serve customers.”
Lean staffing can also limit a retailer’s ability to convert store traffic into sales. Customers who cannot find assistance may leave without making a purchase, while reduced interaction can mean fewer opportunities for clienteling, cross-selling and building long-term relationships.
The consequences can be particularly significant for fashion, luxury, beauty, furniture and other categories where product knowledge and personal assistance remain central to the purchase.
“If you do not have enough retail staff in the store, you are going to lose sales,” Sears said. “You need employees who can speak to customers, understand what they are looking for and help move that interaction toward a purchase.”
Existing employees can face heavier workloads when stores operate with smaller teams. Over time, that can contribute to fatigue, lower morale and employee turnover, placing further pressure on employers already having difficulty recruiting for particular positions.
Sears described many Canadian stores as operating with increasingly lean teams and questioned whether some retailers have moved beyond efficiency into chronic understaffing.
“You cannot promise that you are service-oriented when you do not have enough employees on the sales floor to make that happen,” she said. “At some point, the customer notices.”
Payroll Data Show Losses Across Major Retail Categories
A separate Statistics Canada payroll survey provides more detail on where retail employment has been weakening.
Payroll employment in retail trade was down by approximately 20,300 positions in March compared with the same month in 2025. The largest declines were recorded among clothing and clothing accessories retailers, which employed 6,800 fewer workers, and department stores, where payroll employment was down by 6,500.
Furniture, floor covering, window treatment and other home furnishings retailers recorded a decline of 3,700 positions, while building material and supplies dealers were down by 3,100.
The payroll figures cover an earlier period than the June Labour Force Survey and are produced using a different methodology. They nevertheless demonstrate that employment weakness has extended into several important areas of consumer-facing retail.
The declines correspond with broader changes underway in the Canadian market. Department-store closures and restructurings have removed jobs, while apparel and home-related retailers continue to navigate uneven consumer demand and elevated operating costs.
At the same time, stronger retailers are investing selectively in flagship locations and high-performing markets. Visible expansion by some operators can therefore occur alongside a net reduction in employment across the industry.
Sears said the figures should also prompt a wider discussion about retail’s ability to attract and retain people who view the sector as a long-term career.
“People are looking at retail and asking whether it is still a career worth investing in,” she said. “When the workforce keeps shrinking and stores remain understaffed, that becomes a serious question for the industry.”
Retail has historically offered pathways from entry-level sales positions into store management, buying, merchandising, operations and senior leadership. A prolonged reduction in store-level employment could make those career paths less visible and place pressure on the industry’s future talent pipeline.
Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec Lead Annual Decline
The annual employment decline was concentrated in Canada’s three largest provincial retail markets.
Wholesale and retail employment in Ontario was down by approximately 37,000 positions from June 2025. British Columbia recorded a decline of approximately 31,600, while Quebec was down by about 13,800.
Collectively, the three provinces had approximately 82,400 fewer wholesale and retail workers than one year earlier.
Alberta moved in the opposite direction. Employment in the combined sector increased by approximately 7,100 positions year over year and by 4,800 in June.
Ontario recorded a monthly increase of approximately 9,100 positions in June, while Quebec added 2,900. British Columbia was essentially unchanged during the month.
The provincial differences may reflect varying population trends, consumer demand, operating costs and levels of business investment. They also demonstrate that the national result is not being experienced uniformly across the country.
The monthly improvement in Ontario and Quebec is encouraging, but it has not yet erased the much larger employment declines recorded over the previous year.
Fewer Jobs Do Not Mean Every Position Is Easy to Fill
The contraction in overall employment might suggest that retailers should have little difficulty finding workers. Sears said that is not always the experience of employers attempting to recruit for particular store-level roles.
“Retail employment is declining, but employers are still telling me they cannot find people to fill the positions they have available,” Sears said. “Those two things can happen at the same time.”
Part-time positions can be especially challenging to fill when they offer a limited number of weekly hours or require employees to work evenings, weekends and changing schedules.
“There is a tendency to dismiss employment growth by saying, ‘They were only part-time jobs,’ as though part-time work does not count,” Sears said. “Every second client I speak with is looking for part-time employees. They may need someone for 15 to 24 hours a week, and those are among the most difficult positions to fill.”
National employment totals do not reflect every local recruitment challenge. An industry can employ fewer people overall while individual businesses struggle to fill positions involving particular schedules, locations or specialties.
A short-hours position may not provide enough income for someone seeking full-time work. Evening and weekend schedules can be difficult for workers with family responsibilities, while suburban stores may be inaccessible to employees without reliable transportation.
Some retailers also require highly specific availability. An employer might need someone for evenings, weekends or a small number of peak trading hours, while candidates often require predictable schedules and enough weekly income to make the position worthwhile.
“Retailers may say they need part-time staff, but the schedule has to work for the employee as well as the employer,” Sears said. “You cannot assume there will always be someone available for a small number of hours at exactly the times the store needs them.”
Specialized sales positions can present another challenge. Retailers may need employees with product knowledge, established client relationships or experience serving a particular customer, narrowing the pool of suitable candidates.
This helps explain why the sector can report tens of thousands fewer workers while recruiters still encounter difficulty filling particular vacancies.
Retail Remains Canada’s Largest Employer of Working Students
The June report also highlighted the continuing importance of retail employment for young Canadians.
Employment among people aged 15 to 24 increased by 33,000 in June, with part-time positions accounting for most of the gain. Youth employment increased by 25,000 in part-time work and by 8,000 in full-time positions.
Among students who were employed in June and expected to return to school in the fall, 25.7 per cent worked in retail trade. That was the largest share of any industry, ahead of accommodation and food services at 23.3 per cent and information, culture and recreation at 13 per cent.
The figures reinforce retail’s longstanding role as an entry point into the labour market. Stores provide many young Canadians with their first paid positions and an opportunity to develop experience in sales, customer service, merchandising and workplace communication.
Conditions remain challenging for many younger job seekers, however. The unemployment rate among returning students was 15.3 per cent in June, still above the pre-pandemic June average of 13 per cent.
The difficulty was most pronounced among the youngest students. The unemployment rate among returning students aged 15 and 16 reached 30.6 per cent. It stood at 16.5 per cent among those aged 17 to 19 and 8.2 per cent among returning students aged 20 to 24.
Those differences suggest that older students with previous employment experience are having considerably more success finding work than teenagers attempting to enter the labour market for the first time.
Sears said part-time retail positions should not automatically be viewed as lesser jobs, particularly when they allow students to earn income while completing their education.
“These are real jobs that people need,” Sears said. “For students, part-time work can be what allows them to continue their education and pay their expenses. We should not dismiss those positions simply because they are not full-time.”
The importance of those jobs extends beyond the number of hours worked. A retail position can help a student pay tuition and living costs while providing experience that can support future employment.
Retailers also benefit from access to students who can work during evenings, weekends and peak seasonal periods, although competition for experienced and reliable workers can remain strong.
Retail Hiring Should Accelerate Ahead of the Holidays
The June increase may represent an early improvement after the sharp decline recorded in May, although one month of growth is not enough to establish a sustained recovery.
Retailers will soon begin planning staffing levels for the back-to-school and holiday shopping periods. Sears expects hiring to strengthen as companies prepare for higher traffic and recognize the sales risks associated with operating stores too leanly.
“I think we are going to see a significant rehiring beginning in September because retailers will eventually realize that if they do not hire, they do not sell,” Sears said. “These new stores have to be staffed, and retailers need enough employees in place to convert traffic into sales.”
The timing and scale of that hiring will depend on consumer demand, retailer confidence and the performance of individual categories. Companies may continue relying on flexible scheduling, part-time employees and seasonal contracts to manage uncertainty.
Sears said the industry cannot indefinitely expand its physical presence without eventually adding the store teams required to operate those locations effectively.
“You can open the stores, but at some point you need retail employees working in them,” she said. “If retailers want those stores to perform, they will have to hire.”
June’s employment increase offers a measure of improvement, but it recovered less than half of the positions lost in wholesale and retail trade during May. The much larger year-over-year decline shows that the sector continues to operate with a reduced employment base.
The coming months will reveal whether June marked the beginning of a broader retail hiring recovery or a temporary pause in a longer period of workforce contraction. For retailers promising stronger service and more engaging stores, the answer will influence more than labour costs. It will help determine whether their investments can deliver the customer experience and sales performance they were designed to produce.
