Canada’s health and food sectors are facing high job vacancies, a report by Statistics Canada has shown.
According to Statistics Canada’s newly published report on job vacancies, the Canadian health care and food services sectors had the most employers looking to hire workers for open positions in May.
The report shows that Canadian employers were actively looking for employees to fill more than 671,000 vacant positions in May; the accommodation and food services sector had the most employers actively recruiting employees, while the health sector had the most job vacancies.
There were more than 107,000 job openings in Canada’s health sector in May – nearly one-sixth of all job openings in the country. This also meant that the health sector had the most job openings in Canada for the seventh consecutive month.
The Canadian accommodation and food services sector had the second-highest number of openings with around 78,000 vacancies, followed by the retail trade sector with 73,800 open positions.
Quebec had the highest vacancy rate among all provinces in Canada, with an opening rate of 5.1 per cent in May, according to Statistics Canada’s report.
British Columbia was the next province with the most job openings, having a vacancy rate of 5 per cent.
New Brunswick had the next-most openings on the list with a vacancy rate of 4.9 per cent.
Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest opening rates of all Canadian provinces with 2.8 per cent.
In Canada’s accommodation and food services sector, there was a 7.8 per cent vacancy rate, which was largely due to restaurants being closed and employers finding it difficult to call workers back as many chose to reevaluate their careers and lifestyles amid health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic.
Seasonal hiring of international workers, which was blocked due to border closures during the pandemic, also played a part in the high vacancy rate in Canada’s accommodation and food services sector.
As restrictions due to the pandemic were slightly eased in June, employment numbers rose accordingly, with employment in Canada’s accommodation and food services sector growing by nearly 12 per cent.
Despite having record-breaking numbers for immigration during the pandemic, Canada still has some way to go to meet its immigration number targets for this year.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will need to admit around 43,000 new permanent residents every month for the rest of this year to reach its target of welcoming 401,000 new permanent residents before the end of 2021.
