CANADA – Canada’s job vacancy rate held constant at 2.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2016, according to the latest Help Wanted report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The hold comes after three straight quarterly declines and represents roughly 303,100 vacant full time and temporary positions across Canada.
“We’re continuing to see a moderate softness in Canada’s overall labour market,” said Ted Mallett, CFIB chief economist. “Weakness is still concentrated in the prairies where Alberta’s vacancy rate of 1.5 per cent is a record low for the 12 years we’ve been collecting the data.”
British Columbia continues to have the highest vacancy rate in the country at 3.2 per cent, unchanged from Q1, representing 56,500 jobs. “Many BC businesses are looking to hire, and are finding it challenging to fill those positions with qualified labour,” notes Aaron Aerts, CFIB BC economist.
Among industries across the country, agriculture and professional services saw an increase in vacancy rates, while notable declines were observed in resources, construction, manufacturing, transport, wholesale trade, hospitality and personal services.
The survey shows a continuing clear relationship between job vacancies and wages. Businesses with at least one vacancy reported planned average organization-wide wage increases of 1.8 per cent in Q2, 2016, while those fully staffed reported planned increases of only 1.1 per cent.