400,000 new jobs added to Ontario and Saskatchewan already high number of job vacancies

ASIFCONSULTING

November 29, 2022

400,000 new jobs added to Ontario and Saskatchewan already high number of job vacancies

Results of the latest report show that during September the job number of vacancies and payroll employment has remained high while unemployment has decreased.

Within the multiple work sectors within Canada, the number of job vacancies has increased by 3.8% which puts the total number of job vacancies at 994,800 in September and a majority of these job vacancies are in Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Due to this the job vacancy rate has experienced an increase to 5.7% which indicates Canada’s strong need to hire skilled workers to fill in these continuously rising job vacancies.

Sectors with the highest job vacancies?

Statistics Canada considered a job position to be vacant under the following conditions:

A specific position currently exists; and
Work for this position could start within 30 days, and
The employer is actively seeking workers from outside the organization to fill the position.

Under these requirements, there are certain economic sectors that continue to experience a high number of job vacancies.

Examples of such sectors are shown below:

Healthcare and Social Assistance

The Health care and social assistance sector already had a record-high number of job vacancies in August however in September the vacancies rose even further to 159,500. This sector in particular has experienced a continuous 25% rise in its job vacancies for the past few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic increasing the need and demand for healthcare professionals such as nurses, physicians, surgeons, doctors, etc.

Canada has taken steps to entice more professionals in this sector to immigrate to the country, even removing barriers to permanent residence (PR) for professionals in this sector, in a bid to address labor shortages.

Accommodation and Food Services

Although less than the Health care and social assistance sector the accommodation, and food services still had a considerably large number of job vacancies (152,400) in September which was a rise of 12% percent compared to August.

Although a large part of this increase can be assigned to seasonal effects, there was also the continued return to the pre-pandemic business that helped the employment within the industry grow and there are also signs of great future employment as well since the job vacancies in the sector have remained high all year.

Retail Trade

The Retail Trade sector only experience a small increase in job vacancies having a total of 117,300 vacant positions in September saw a slight increase in job vacancies, with 117,300 vacant positions in September. This puts the job vacancy rate at 5.5% which is the national average job vacancy rate across all sectors but nevertheless, it still means that the sector has a strong hiring climate now and most likely for the near future as well.

Professional Scientific and Technical Services

The Professional Scientific and Technical Services sector is an expansive sector that covers a vast number of fields such as legal services, accounting, architecture and engineering, computer systems design, management consulting, advertising, public relations, etc, and just like the previous ones, it is also a sector that has a high labor demand.

It was displayed through the September report that the sector had 61,900 vacant job positions and a vacancy rate of 5% which is again at the national average level but still indicates the strong demand for labor in the sector.

Canada’s response to the record number of job vacancies

As Canada continues to experience a large demand for labor it continues to rely on immigrants to make up for the demand. For this purpose, the (IRCC) Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada has also taken multiple measures to tackle this problem, especially considering that a large part of the current labor force is approaching retirement age and soon go into retirement.

That is why Canada has a strong demand for skilled worker immigrants and is going to great lengths to acquire them which is shown by the expansion of economic immigration pathways like Express Entry and the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) along with the aggressive immigration plan to accepting 500,000 newcomers to Canada by 2025.