OTTAWA – The number of job vacancies across Canada reached an all-time high in March, ending a five-month decline, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.
The agency said employers were looking to cover more than a million jobs in early March, 186,000 more or 22.6% compared to February and 382,000 or 60.5% over the previous year.
The non-seasonally adjusted vacancy rate, which measures the number of vacancies as a proportion of all positions, was 5.9 percent in March, equaling the all-time high of September 2021.
Vacancies increased by more than a third in housing, food services and retail trade, while there were record vacancies in healthcare, welfare and construction.
Employers in the accommodation and catering sector sought to fill 158,000 jobs with the highest vacancy rate of 12.8% of all sectors for the 11th consecutive month.
There were 109,000 retail sites available and 154,000 vacancies in healthcare and 82,000 under construction.
Job vacancies increased in all provinces with the largest increases in Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Prior to March, job offers had fallen for five consecutive months due to seasonal patterns with rising economic activity driving higher demand for labor.
A record unemployment rate of 5.3% and a higher participation rate of 88.6% in the active population resulted in an average of 1.2 unemployed people for each job vacancy in March, below from 1.4 in February and 2.6 in March 2021.
Ratios were lowest in Quebec and British Columbia and highest in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Meanwhile, average weekly earnings rose 0.9% from February and 4.3% year-on-year, double the increase seen a month earlier. The consumer price index rose 6.7% in March compared to March 2021.
Statistics Canada also said the number of people working in retail exceeded its pre-pandemic level for the first time in March.
Retail jobs rose 0.7 percent or 14,800 positions since February to move 9,600 jobs ahead of where they were in February 2020.
Employment in the sector was two or more years earlier in all provinces except Ontario and Manitoba, which were at 5,400 and 2,100 positions respectively before the COVID-19 pandemic caused massive layoffs.
More than half of the retail subsectors saw increases in payroll employment in March, led by food and beverages (7,400 more jobs) and clothing and accessories stores (3,300 more).
Occupancy in grocery stores was 2.8% above its pre-pandemic level in March, but jobs in beer, wine and liquor stores were 5.1% or 2,600 places below from its level in February 2020.
Overall, the agency said employment increased by 118,000 or 0.7% between February and March to 17.3 million as public health measures eased and capacity limits generally widened. they raised.
Profits were boosted by the services sector, with seven provinces seeing increases led by Quebec, which reopened bars, taverns and casinos on 28 February.
All provinces except Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador exceeded pre-pandemic levels in March.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on May 26, 2022.