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April 28, 2022JOB VACANCIES, FEBRUARY 2022 Statistics Canada released today monthly results from the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (JVWS) for February 2022.
Nova Scotia had 15,815 job vacancies in February 2022 with a vacancy rate of 3.7%. Canadian employers were actively recruiting for 826,465 positions (not seasonally adjusted) in February with a vacancy rate of 4.9%. The highest vacancy rates were reported in British Columbia and Quebec, while the lowest vacancy rate was reported in Newfoundland and Labrador. Compared to February 2021, the job vacancy rate was higher in January 2022 for all provinces.
The number of vacancies declined 4.6% from the previous month in Nova Scotia. Nationally, job vacancies declined 0.5% from January. Vacancies were down in five provinces with Saskatchewan (-10.0%) posting the largest decline. Newfoundland and Labrador (+28.1%) posted the highest month-over-month gain in job vacancies in February. Note that job vacancy data are not adjusted for seasonal patterns.
Nova Scotia job vacancies were 38.6% higher than they were one year ago. The number of vacancies were up in all provinces compared to February 2021, with the largest growth in vacancies being in Prince Edward Island. British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador reported the lowest increase in February 2022 compared with one year ago.
Nationally, health care and social assistance sector had the highest number of job vacancies at 133,180 with a job vacancy rate of 5.8%.
Accommodation and food services sector had the highest vacancy rate in February. The job vacancy rate in the sector was 9.8% in February, the highest across all sectors for the 10th consecutive month.
Construction, administrative and support, waste management and remediation services, health care and social assistance, arts, entertintment and recreation and other services had the next highest vacancy rates. The lowest vacancy rate was for educational services in February 2022. Job vacancy rates were up for every industry with the exception of educational servces at the national level compared to one year ago.
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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