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December 23, 2021JOB VACANCIES, OCTOBER 2021 Statistics Canada released today monthly results from the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (JVWS) for October 2021.
Nova Scotia had 20,800 job vacancies in October 2021 with a vacancy rate of 4.7%. Canadian employers were actively recruiting for 964,310 positions (not seasonally adjusted) in October with a vacancy rate of 5.6%. The national vacancy rate in October was up 2.6 percentage points from Q4 2019 (not seasonally adjusted).
The highest vacancy rates were reported in British Columbia and Quebec (both 6.3%). The lowest vacancy rate was reported in Saskatchewan (3.9%).
The number of vacancies increased 1.5% from the previous month in Nova Scotia. Vacancies were up in five provinces with Newfoundland and Labrador (+10.4%) posting the largest increase and Nova Scotia posting the smallest. Nationally, job vacancies were down 2.4% from September when the number of vacancies reached a record high level since comparable monthly data became available. New Brunswick (-22.4%) posted the largest monthly decline in October. Job vacancy data is not adjusted for seasonal patterns.
Nationally, accommodation and food services sector had the highest number of job vacancies at 147,300, with a job vacancy rate of 11.0% (not seasonally adjusted). The job vacancy rate in accommodation and food services was significantly higher than any other industry. Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (7.4%) and other services (7.3%) had the next highest vacancy rates.
The job vacancy rate for manufacturing sector (5.6%) was at a record high since the data become available in October 2020.
The lowest vacancy rate was for utilities (1.5%) and educational services (1.5%) in October.
Notes: The job vacancy rate is a key indicator of labour market conditions. The job vacancy rate is the percentage of job positions (both filled and vacant) that are vacant. A higher job vacancy rate indicates a tighter labour market where it is more difficult for employers to find suitable candidates for the positions offered. A lower job vacancy rate signals labour market slack and potentially more job seekers competing for each vacant position.
Information on monthly job vacancies will continue in future Statistics Canada releases, and a more detailed analysis will be released with quarterly estimates from the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0371-01 Job vacancies, payroll employees, and job vacancy rate by provinces and territories, monthly, unadjusted for seasonality; Table 14-10-0372-01 Job vacancies, payroll employees, and job vacancy rate by industry sector, monthly, unadjusted for seasonality
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