Canada's Job Vacancy Crisis: Openings Plummet to 8-Year Low – What It Means for You

Job Vacancy Rate Tumbles to Eight-Year Low as Openings Dry Up

Job hunters are facing a dwindling number of opportunities. Canada’s job vacancy rate fell in July to its lowest level since February 2017, with the industries that account for the largest number of openings all pulling back on hiring, according to Statistics Canada.

The vacancy rate, a measure of the number of openings as a share of labour demand, fell to 2.6 per cent in July, when employers posted fewer than 470,000 help wanted ads, a 4.2-per-cent drop from the month before and sharply lower than the summer of 2022, when nearly a million jobs went unfilled.

The latest vacancy numbers reflect a job market that is suffering on several fronts, including the trade war with the U.S. and weakened business investment, which have helped push Canada’s unemployment rate to its highest level in nine years outside the pandemic period.

Employers cut back on job postings in most industries in July, but the steepest declines were in construction, finance, and health care.

The three sectors that accounted for more than 40 per cent of vacancies that month – health care, retail, and accommodation and food services – have all retrenched in recent months.

That could spell further trouble for young people, who are grappling with the highest unemployment rate in 15 years for their demographic, excluding the pandemic, since the retail and hospitality sectors both draw large numbers of younger workers.