Canadian employers were actively seeking to fill more than one million vacancies as of early March 2022, according to Statistics Canada’s latest report on job vacancies, payroll, and earnings.
In March, the number of job vacancies in Canada reached over 1,012,900 which is higher than the prior record of September 2021 of 988,300. The number of vacancies increased between February and March are 186,400. The measured rate of job vacancies as the ratio of vacant and filled positions is 5.9%, which was seen as a record high last September.
More than one-third of vacancies increased in both housing and food services as well as retail trade. There are about 158,100 positions that need to be filled in housing and food services and retail employees had about 109,200 vacancies.
There were many job vacancies in health care and social support as well as in construction. The number of vacancies in healthcare is 154,500 and81,900 construction and unprecedented workers are needed to fill the vacancies.
All the provinces had job vacancies. The largest number over the month was seen in provinces such as Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, and Labrador. The number of job vacancies recorded increased in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and BC.
In March the average unemployment rate for every job vacancy was 1.2, which is down from 1.4 in February. The low unemployment rate of 5.3% coexists with a record of high core-age labor force participation which was nearly 87%.
Particularly Quebec and British Columbia face a labor shortage, each with an unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio of 0.8. This low ratio shows a labor shortage in the job market in Canada. The highest 4.3 was observed in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Job vacancies had fallen five back-to-back months since September 2021. The economic activity of Canada is increasing in the season of spring and summer and declines in the winter.
As per the statistics of Canada job vacancy data for April 2022 is expected to be released on 24 June. The result of the survey on job vacancies and salary for the first quarter of 2022 will be released on 21 June.
