Canadian employers actively sought to fill 997,000 job vacancies in the second quarter of this year. This is the highest quarterly figure ever recorded, according to Statistics Canada yesterday.

The number of job vacancies in the second quarter increased by 4.7%, or 45,000 jobs, compared to the first quarter, and by 42.3%, or 296,500 jobs, compared to the second quarter of last year.

The job vacancy rate reached 5.7%, also a record number. This rate corresponds to the number of vacancies as a percentage of total labour demand, i.e. the sum of occupied and vacant jobs.

The health care and social assistance sector had 136,100 job vacancies in the second quarter, compared to 135,300 vacancies in the first quarter. This is an increase of 28.8%, or 30,500 jobs, on an annual basis.

Meanwhile, the number of job vacancies in the accommodation and food services sector in the second quarter increased by 12.7%, or 16,800 jobs, compared to the first quarter, reaching 149,600 jobs.

A record number of job vacancies were also recorded in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector, where it reached 74,600 jobs, representing an increase of 7.9% compared to the first quarter.

The number of job vacancies increased between the first and second quarters in six of Canada’s ten provinces on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The highest increases were recorded in Ontario, Canada's largest province by population and economic size, at 6.6%, with 379,700 job vacancies.

In Nova Scotia, the largest of the four Atlantic provinces, the number of job vacancies rose by 6.0% to 22,400.

In British Columbia, the third largest province by population and the fourth by economic size, the number of job vacancies increased by 5.6% to 163,600.

In Manitoba, an increase of 5.2% was recorded, with the number of job vacancies reaching 29,300.

In Alberta, the fourth largest province by population and the third by economic size, an increase of 4.4% was recorded, with job vacancies totaling 100,900.

In Quebec, the second largest province, the number of job vacancies rose by 2.4% to reach 248,100 in the second quarter.

However, in New / New Brunswick Atlantic, the number of job vacancies declined between the first and second quarters by 6.1% to 15,200.

The number of job vacancies did not change significantly in the other three provinces.

Statistics Canada said there was an average of 1.1 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in Canada in the second quarter of 2022, compared to 1.3 unemployed persons in the first quarter of the same year and 2.3 unemployed persons in the second quarter of 2021.

It is noted, in a related context, that the Canadian labour market lost 40,000 jobs on a net basis in August and that the unemployment rate rose by 0.5 percentage points to reach 5.4%, according to Statistics Canada.