With the tariff crisis, the job market has done a complete about-face, leading companies to be very cautious when it comes to recruitment. Xavier Thorens, CEO of Thorens Talents, believes the recovery could come sooner than expected. Companies need to position themselves now.
Since Trump’s arrival, American politics has become volatile, with currents constantly changing sides.
“The midterm elections are in November 2026. That’s tomorrow! The situation regarding tariffs could change. According to various economists, there could be an economic recovery in the second half of 2026.”
Xavier Thorens reminds us that, underneath it all, structural problems remain.
“When the Quebec government made its workforce projections until 2030, they said there would be more than a million retirements; that’s enormous.”
His conclusion: companies must plan for the recovery now if they want to avoid finding themselves with a reduced talent pool in a few months.
Need for increased specialization
This exercise requires imagining what the recovery will look like.
“We need to think outside the box of our industry and do a kind of monitoring of market trends. We need to look at how government policies and geopolitics will affect our market. We can expect to see Canadian purchasing policies. Do we have the team in place to respond to calls for tender? Do we have the structure in place to submit bids?”
We can imagine that ESG criteria, the sustainable shift, and energy transition will continue to gain importance in the eyes of companies, investors, and consumers. And that AI will continue to change how operations are conducted across several industries.
“My first recommendation is to inventory the positions we need to fill to achieve our recovery mission. Do we have the sales team in place? Do we need to recruit people with technical specializations?”
Xavier notes that AI has had the effect of increasing the need for specialization in several areas of activity.
“We’re not going to hire fewer people, we’re going to hire more specialized individuals. We work with many clients who develop industrial artificial intelligence software. If I compare to a few years ago, there’s a hyper-specialization at the engineering level.”
In this context, talent shortage seems almost inevitable. Better to prepare for it now.
Nurturing HR policies
When you know what you’re looking for, the next concern is attractiveness. To attract talent, Xavier Thorens advises companies to take inventory of their HR policies:
“When the recovery happens, candidates will once again be solicited from all sides. How do we position ourselves now, so we don’t appear to be playing yo-yo with our HR policies? We need to review our policies to ensure they’ll be ready to exist in a context where we could potentially face a labor shortage.”
The strategy is clear: court talent now, while it’s still possible to have their ear!
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