The Corona breakout brought an urgent requirement to the public healthcare measures in Canada. At the same time, the accommodation and food services sector has had a soaring number of employers looking for workers.
The health sector has had the highest number of job openings in the country for the seventh consecutive month.
There were about 671,100 recruitments in May. The health care sector alone had 107,300 openings available, which solely accounted for nearly one-sixth of the total job vacancies in Canada. The second-highest number of openings were in the accommodation and food sector with some 78,000 total recruitments, followed by retail trade with 73,800 job vacancies.
The number of open positions is estimated by the total number of vacancies. A slight difference compared to the vacancy rate, that refers to the number of vacancies as the proportion of all positions.
According to the Statistics Canada payroll, employment, and job vacancy report, Quebec had the highest job vacancy rate among all the provinces at 5.1 percent in May. Seconded by B.C. with 5 percent, then New Brunswick at 4.9 percent. Newfoundland and Labrador are at the lowest with 2.8 percent.
Recruitment challenges and seasonal hiring affected the accommodation and food service sector, which had a vacancy rate of 7.8 percent.
While the restaurants were shut amidst the pandemic, employees helplessly took up social assistance. Recruiters now are facing difficulties calling back their staff. CBC reported that people are re-analyzing their careers and lifestyles at the same time worrying about their health in the pandemic. The international students who previously worked in this sector also played a prominent role in the growing vacancy rates.
The Covid-19 restrictions eased up in June. Employment in accommodation and food services grew from May to June at 12 percent, according to the Labour Force Survey.
Immigrants needed to support worsening labour shortages
It was pointed out in RBC’s report recently that Canada needs more immigrants as retirement and job quitting rates increase.
Economist Andrew Agopsowicz noted that the pandemic has made job quitting and retirement numbers drop significantly. Since the economy is starting to heal, the number of job quitters is returning to the original pre-pandemic level. It is also assumed that in the second half of 2021, retirements were delayed by the pandemic. These are the factors that explain the labour shortage throughout summer and fall.
“Canada will increasingly need to rely on immigration and other sources for labour force growth,” the RBC report says.
Canada’s this year’s record-breaking immigration targets admitted newcomers at a slower rate in the initial few months of the year. Although in June, it picked up the pace by welcoming a whopping number of 35,000 new permanent residents. We do not know what figure July has to offer yet, but the opening of the Canadian border to the approved permanent resident can shoot up the numbers.
Since the federal government’s target is to achieve 401,000 immigrants this year, Canada has to allow more than 43,000 immigrants in July to complete their goal.
