According to the federal agency, Canadian employers actively sought to fill 1,001,100 job vacancies, up 23,300 from March and 308,000 from April 2021.
The vacancy rate, which measures the number of vacancies as a proportion of all positions, stood at 5.8% in April, compared to 4.4% in the same month last year.
This change comes at a time when employment numbers are rising across the country.
« In April, for the first time, payroll employment in all provinces had returned to the level observed in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic, or had exceeded this level. »
The Bank of Canada has cited the high level of vacancies, saying it believes it demonstrates the clear need to rein in the economy as it tries to fight inflation.
The labor market is one of the clearest signs in Canada right now that we are in excess demand
said the central bank’s senior deputy governor, Carolyn Rogers, at a conference earlier this week.
We have a million vacancies. If you talk to companies these days, they’ll tell you they’re really struggling to fill these positions.
The tight labor market is also helping to push up wages, which can fuel inflation.
Increase in wages and inflation
Data released by Statistics Canada on Friday showed average weekly earnings rose 4% in April from a year ago. However, workers did not benefit much as inflation stood at 6.8% during the same period.
Some sectors, however, saw higher wage increases. Earnings in the retail sector increased by 11.7%, those in the professional, scientific and technical services sector increased by 9.7% and those in the manufacturing group increased by 8.2%. The arts, entertainment and recreation sector was the only sector to see its wages decline (-4.5%).
In a report on Friday, Bank of Montreal chief executive Douglas Porter said one of the reasons core inflation is rising is because cost pressures are spreading through a tight labor market.
He noted that Friday’s wage figures show that on a fixed-weighted measure, annual wage growth was 6.2% in April, which is well above other wage indicators this year and above regarding one percentage point from the previous peak seen in data for the last 30 years.
« After a long period of surprising calm for wages in Canada, the payroll survey has just taken a hit in inflation. »
The number of vacancies hit a record high in several sectors, including construction, which saw the number of vacancies hit 89,900 in April, up 12,000 from March and 27,200 from March. to April 2021.
Job vacancies also hit a record high for professional, scientific and technical services, transportation and warehousing, finance and insurance, arts, entertainment and recreation, and real estate services. and rental and leasing services.
The health care and social assistance sector saw the number of job vacancies drop to 125,200 in April from a high of 147,500 in March, but those unfilled jobs still showed an increase of 21, 3% compared to the previous year.
