Job vacancies throughout Canada hit a record high of nearly one million open positions in this
year’s second quarter, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.
Between April and June of this year, Canadian employers were scrambling to fill a record
997,000 vacant jobs, up 4.7% from the previous first quarter and 42.3% higher than in the
second quarter of 2021.
Vacancies rose in six provinces, led by Ontario’s 6.6% increase. Nova Scotia, British Columbia,
Manitoba, Alberta, and Quebec also saw a growing number of job vacancies during Q2.
Job openings remained particularly high in the healthcare sector, which were up nearly 30%
from a year earlier. Service-sector job openings were also elevated with vacancies in the
accommodation and food services sector up 12.7% from this year’s first quarter.
The increase in job vacancies comes as wages fail to keep pace with inflation. According to
StatsCan, average hourly wages grew 4.1% year-over-year in the second quarter, while inflation
rose an average of 7.5% in the three-month period.
However, the latest Consumer Price Index issued by StatsCan showed that inflation in August
eased to 7% from 7.6% in July, suggesting that interest rate increases are starting to work.
