economy
THANK GOODNESS BC DOESN’T HAVE A VACANT JOB TAX Across Canada, there are currently 562,910 jobs that employers would like to have filled but remain vacant; this amounts to 3.3% of all filled and unfilled jobs (combined), a proportion that has remained constant over the past year.
rate of growth, it would take nine years for these vacancies to be filled. Of course, just as with the unemployment rate, the equilibrium job vacancy rate is not zero, but rather something likely close to 3%. Even so, that still equates tomore than 25,000 jobs that could, or should, be filled under normal conditions. While this does signal that employers remain positive about hiring and, by extension, future economic prospects, it begs the question of whether automation over the longer-term could be more of an economic saviour than a job slayer. This is underscored by the fact that one-third of current vacancies are in retail and accommodation/food services—sectors that are ripe for an increased automation presence in the coming years.
BritishColumbiaaccountsforalmostone-fifth of these vacancies, with 106,260 of its own, which translates to a vacancy rate of 4.5%. Though this is down from 4.8% compared to one year earlier, it remains the highest of any province. This brings us to Metro Vancouver, whose labour challenges have beenwell-documented in this publication and in others. Overall, the region faces a 4.7% job vacancy rate, which is the highest in the country and is the result of 72,475 positions that are unfilled. To put this in perspective, at the most recent annualized
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