Hiring Demand in Durham: Sector and Occupation Trends in Q4 2025
Hiring demand in Durham Region during the fourth quarter of 2025 continued to centre on service-oriented and essential occupations, particularly in retail, healthcare, food services, and education. These sectors accounted for a significant share of job postings and remain foundational to the local labour market.
The most in-demand occupations included:
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Retail salespersons and visual merchandisers
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Food counter attendants and kitchen helpers
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Home support workers and caregivers
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Retail and wholesale trade managers
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Licensed practical nurses
At the sector level, health care and social assistance remained the top hiring sector, followed by retail trade, administrative and support services, and construction. Over the past 12 months, utilities emerged as the fastest-growing sector, while administrative support and educational services saw notable declines. Demand continues to be strongest in roles that support day-to-day services and community needs. At the same time, growth in utilities and infrastructure-related sectors suggests emerging opportunities for workers with technical and specialized skills
Check out the Q4 Labour Market Insights Report to find the latest local data on the labour market in Durham Region.
About the DWA:
The DWA creates an annual plan supplying helpful information for community planning. Next month, the DWA will release its annual Labour Market Plan (LMP).
The plan focuses on the following:
- Durham Region demographics change, migration trends in and out, educational attainment of residents, and changes in employers in the local area by employee size and 3-digit NAICs.
- Enhanced Jobs First Durham (JFD) data extracted from the DWA’s boutique job board with hyper-local information.
- An update on Employment Ontario data.
The DWA provides just-in-time custom labour market information and often conducts custom fee-for-service research. If you are interested in local data, please don’t hesitate to contact the DWA.
The Province of Ontario partially funds the DWA to supply Labour Market Information (LMI) to the Region of Durham.