Canadian employers were actively looking to fill more than one million job vacancies at the start of March 2022, a report by Statistics Canada has revealed.
According to the report on Canadian job vacancies, payroll employment and earnings, job vacancies are reaching all-time highs in the country.
Job vacancies in Canada reached a record-high of 1,012,900 in March 2022, surpassing the previous highest count of 988,300 vacancies in September 2021.
The number of job vacancies increased by more than 186,000 between February and March 2022, while the job vacancy rate (which measures the number of open positions as a ratio of vacant and filled positions) matched the record high of 5.9 per cent observed in September 2021.
Job vacancies in Canada’s accommodation and food services and retail trade increased by one-third; employers in accommodation and food services were looking to recruit workers for 158,100 vacant positions, and retail employers looked to fill 109,200 vacancies.
Record levels of job vacancies were also observed in health care and social assistance as well as in the construction industry. Health care and social assistance vacancies reached 154,500 spots, while construction vacancies numbered almost 82,000.
The job vacancies in Canada were observed to have increased in all provinces. The biggest month-over-month increase was seen in Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
However, labour shortages were particularly felt in Quebec and British Columbia, where the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio was recorded as 0.8. A lower ratio indicated a tighter labour market.
On the other hand, the highest unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio was recorded at 4.3 in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The number of job vacancies also reached record highs in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.
An average of 1.2 unemployed people were recorded in March, down from 1.4 in February. This decline also coincided with a record-low unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent and a record-high core-age labour force participation rate of almost 87 per cent.
Statistics Canada is scheduled to release its job vacancy data for April 2022 later this month. The Job Vacancy and Wage Survey results from the first quarter of 2022 are also set to be released around the same time.
