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Statistics Canada has released job vacancies data for the second quarter.
Job vacancies fell by 59,000 to 582,600 in the second quarter, marking the eighth consecutive quarterly decline from the record high of 983,600 reached in the second quarter of 2022. The drop in the second quarter of 2024 was approximately twice the decline observed in the previous quarter.
In the second quarter, job vacancies decreased for both permanent positions and temporary positions. Vacancies also fell for full-time positions and part-time positions.
Meanwhile, payroll employment increased by 62,000 in the second quarter. Total labour demand was little changed compared to the first quarter of 2024, and was also little changed from the second quarter of 2023.
The job vacancy rate—which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand—decreased 0.3 percentage points to 3.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, marking the eighth consecutive quarterly decline. The job vacancy rate in the second quarter was at its lowest since the first quarter of 2020.
Labour market continues to ease as unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio trends up
There were 2.4 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in the second quarter of 2024. The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio has trended up since the third quarter of 2022. The steady increase in this ratio over this period was driven by a decrease in job vacancies combined with an increase in the number of unemployed persons as estimated in the Labour Force Survey.