Job vacancies in Canada surpassed one million as employers increasingly find it difficult to find workers and fill positions.
There were 1,014,600 job vacancies across the country in September, according to Statistics Canada. That represents about 6% of all jobs, a vacancy rate that’s up from as low as 3% last December.
Employers in high-contact industries such as food services and hotels had the highest proportion of unfilled positions, at 14.4%.
The latest report suggests labour shortages are growing as employers ramp up hiring in a recovering economy.
There are now 0.8 vacancies for every job seeker in the country, according to data compiled at the University of Waterloo. That’s the highest proportion in data dating back to 2015 and twice the average of 0.4 over that period.
Employee earnings were up 2.6% in September from a year ago, according to the Statistics Canada report. The agency is set to release its November Labour Force survey on December 3.
