The number of job vacancies in Canada hit 958,500 in August, down slightly from July 2022 (964,000), according to the latest Statistics Canada data released on Thursday.

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The number of job vacancies in July remained higher than August 2021 (919,200), Statistics Canada said.

The job vacancy rate was 5.4% in August, the same as in July and close to the rate in August 2021 (5.5%).

The number of vacancies in the field of professional, scientific and technical services decreased by 9.2% (-6100). In hospitality, job vacancies were flat from July.

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Retail job vacancies increased by 20.4% (+20,200) in August, offsetting the fall in July (-11.9%; -13,400).

According to Statistics Canada, the number of vacancies in healthcare and social assistance “has reached a new record”. A total of 152,000 vacancies remain unfilled in this sector, an increase of 6.4% (+9,100) compared to July and 19.4% (+24,800) compared to August 2021.

“The labor shortage in the health and social care sector has prompted many hospitals to announce temporary restrictions on certain services in July and August, including the temporary closure of certain emergency rooms,” the agency said.

While the number of vacancies in Canada hardly changed in August, the number of unemployed rose from July to August 2022 (+15.4%; +168,100). There were 1.3 unemployed for every vacancy in August, compared to 1.1 in July and 1.8 in August 2021.

Because of increases in unemployment in Quebec (+18.5%; +36,700) and British Columbia (+11.7%; +16,800), the unemployment-to-vacancy ratio in each of these provinces rose to 1.0 for the first time since February 2022,” according to Statistics Canada data. August saw the highest unemployment-to-vacancy ratio in Newfoundland and Labrador (3.5).

Quebec has one of the highest job vacancy rates in the world.

British Columbia (6.1%; 153,900 vacancies), Quebec (5.9%; 240,100) and Ontario (5.1%; 349,700) were the provinces with the highest job vacancies in Canada.

Wages rise

Statistics Canada also reported that average weekly earnings rose 3.2% year-on-year in August, up slightly from July’s 12-month growth of 3%.

New Brunswick (+5.7% to $1,006.62), Manitoba (+4.8%; $1,070.27), Nova Scotia (+4.7%; $1,027.02) and Quebec (+4.6 %; $1,120.40) posted the largest 12-month gains in average weekly earnings in August.