economy
AN ONGOING MISMATCH BETWEEN JOBS & WORKERS Though the job vacancy rate continues to fall nationwide as labour market tightness eases, it remains elevated relative to history and is stubbornly high in a few key sectors.
The job vacancy rate has been consistently declining for more than a year in Canada, to 4.2% from its peak in the spring of 2022 of 5.7%. And while this is a positive step towards a more balanced labour market, it is, however, well above the pre-pandemic rate of 3.4%. When Statistics Canada resumed tracking job vacancies in the Fall of 2020, the rate was 3.7%. Of the 20 employment sectors, unsurprisingly half were above 3.4% and half were below. When the job vacancy rate was at its peak last May nearly all sectors,
18 to be precise, were above that 3.4% level. So it’s a substantial improvement that today, only 13 of the sectors remain above 3.4%. Of those 13, however, a few remain significantly elevated and pose substantial challenges to those sectors. Accommodation and food service (6.6%), health care (6.1%), and construction (5.1%) are all facing ongoing labour shortages that are impacting activity in those sectors, with the latter hampering our ability to add enough new supply to housing markets across the country.
AS THE JOB MARKET LISTS, VACANCIES PERSIST
20
6.0%
18
5.0%
4.2%
16
14
4.0%
12
10
3.0%
8
2.0%
6
4
1.0%
2
0
0.0%
2021
2022
2023
NUMBER OF SECTORS ABOVE PRE PANDEMIC RATE LEFT AXIS
JOB VACANCY RATE RIGHT AXIS
DATA: JOB VACANCY RATE & NUMBER OF SECTORS ABOVE PRE-PANDEMIC RATE, MONTHLY, SEASONALLY-ADJUSTED, CANADA SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA. TABLE 14-10-0406-01
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