The head of a job seeking firm says he is seeing a shift in hiring and recruitment patterns for workers at the highest levels, even as jobs data remains stubbornly strong.

Michael Scissons, tech entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Careerlist, said tech executives in high-ranking roles are fielding fewer calls from recruiters about job opportunities than they were six months ago.

“A year ago, if you were a top professional, you were getting multiple calls a month from executive search companies trying to convince you to go another big company or a great startup, today that’s not the case,” he told BNN Bloomberg on Monday.

“It’s still very much shaky in terms of where we’re at in the overall hiring market,” he added.

Canada’s jobs data shattered expectations when it added 40,000 jobs in August, as the unemployment rate remained at 5.5 per cent.

The Bank of Canada has been looking to bring unemployment higher as it tries to reign in inflation, but the Canadian labour market has remained resilient.

Despite the statistics, Scissons suggests the data does not show the whole picture. While calls from recruiters have dwindled, he said more top professionals are now actively seeking new jobs in anticipation of an economic downturn.

“That number has gone up (in) the hundreds a week, from people saying: ‘Hey, I’m now in market,’” he said. “In the last six months, those calls have really increased.”