Job vacancies in Canada hit 15-month low

Canadian job vacancies fell by 44,300 (-4.8 per cent) to 871,300 in October, the second statistically significant monthly decline since the record high (1,001,800) in May and the lowest level seen since August 2021, according to Statistics Canada.

Ketut Subiyanto

The month-over-month decrease from September to October 2022 was led by construction (-17,200; -20.4 per cent) and administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (-11,000; -19.9 per cent). No sector recorded a statistically significant increase in its number of unfilled positions, although job vacancies remained near record levels in health care and social assistance,” said the federal agency on Thursday.

“There were 1.2 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in October 2022, up from the low of 1.0 in June, but down from 2.0 in February 2020, prior to the pandemic.”

StatsCan reported that the number of employees receiving pay or benefits from their employer—referred to as “payroll employees” in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—was little changed in October (-5,400), following an increase of 96,400 (+0.5 per cent) in September.

“Payroll employment in the services-producing sector (+9,800; +0.1 per cent) increased for the fifth consecutive month in October. Gains in public administration (+6,700; +0.5 per cent) and professional, scientific and technical services (+6,500; +0.5 per cent) were partially offset by losses in arts, entertainment and recreation (-3,500; -1.2 per cent) and administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (-2,600; -0.3 per cent),” it said.

“Meanwhile, payroll employment in the goods-producing sector declined by 4,000 (-0.1 per cent) in October, following a gain of 21,000 (+0.7 per cent) in September. Manufacturing (-2,000; -0.1 per cent) and construction (-1,100; -0.1 per cent) recorded declines, while the remaining three goods-producing sectors showed little change.”

The federal agency said average weekly earnings grew 3.4 per cent to $1,172 in October on a year-over-year basis, a faster pace of growth than in September (+3.1 per cent).  Average weekly hours worked were down 0.3 per cent (to 33.2 hours) in October compared with the previous month and down 0.9 per cent compared with October 2021.

(Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, covering sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and breaking news, and business. He works as well as a freelance writer for several national publications and as a consultant in communications and media relations/training. Mario was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list)