The recruitment market consists of temporary and permanent staffing and search and placement services. Recruitment companies act on behalf of clients, who have outsourced all, or perhaps only a part, of their recruitment needs. While some clients require a recruitment company to coordinate all their recruitment needs, others will only want assistance with specific vacancies. Usually, a client will sign an agreement with the recruitment company that sets out the terms of business.

In recent times, the staffing picture remains strong for job seekers, as Canadian employers anticipate a healthy job market. Employment increased by an estimated 44,000 in December 2005, pushing the unemployment rate down 0.3 percentage points to seven percent, the lowest since May 2001.

Aruvian Research analyzes the Recruitment Industry in Canada in Michael Porter's Five Forces Analysis. It uses concepts developed in Industrial Organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Porter referred to these forces as the microenvironment, to contrast it with the more general term macro-environment. They consist of those forces close to a company that affect its ability to serve its customers and make a profit. A change in any of the forces normally requires a company to re-assess the marketplace.