Ottawa (Reuters) - The Canadian Statistics Agency said employers are actively seeking to fill 997,000 job vacancies in the second quarter, the highest quarterly number ever.
The agency says the number of job vacancies for the three-month period rose by 4.7 percent or 45,000 compared to the first quarter and increased by 42.3 percent or 296,500 compared to the second quarter of last year.

The job vacancy rate reached 5.7 percent, which is also a record level.

The number of job vacancies in the healthcare and social assistance sector reached 136,100 in the second quarter compared to 135,300 in the first quarter, but it increased by 28.8% or 30,500 jobs year-over-year.

At the same time, the number of job vacancies in the accommodation and food services sector increased by 12.7 percent or 16,800 quarter-over-quarter to 149,600 in the second quarter.

The number of job vacancies in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector also reached 74,600 jobs, an increase of 7.9% over the first quarter. Edited by: Yusra Bamtarf