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March 30, 2023JOB VACANCIES, JANUARY 2023 Statistics Canada released today monthly job vacancy results for January 2023. With this release, Statistics Canada has started to publish seasonally adjusted data and has moved to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2022 Version 1.0. The data in this article refers to seasonally adjusted data.
Nova Scotia had 20,480 job vacancies in January 2023 with a vacancy rate of 4.5%.
Canadian employers were actively recruiting for 883,230 positions in November 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 the previous month, job vacancy rate increased in eight provinces, declined in Saskatchewan and stayed the same in Ontario. Nova Scotia’s job vacancy rate increase 0.1 percentage points from December 2022.
When compared to January 2022, job vacancy rate stayed the same in Nova Scotia at 4.5%. Nationally, job vacancy rate declined from 5.4% to 4.9%.
Compared with January 2022, vacancy rates were up in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Vacancy rates were down for Quebec and British Columbia, and were unchanged for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Alberta.
Although there are seasonal variations, Nova Scotia's job vacancy rates trended up for most of 2021 and 2022.
The number of job vacancies in Nova Scotia were 20,480 in January 2023, up from the 19,625 job vacancies reported in January 2022.
When compared to December 2022, the number of job vacancies in Nova Scotia was up 3.6%. National job vacancies increased 3.4% over the same period with gains in all provinces except Saskatchewan. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest increase.
Comparing January 2023 against January 2022, the number of job vacancies in Nova Scotia was up 4.4%. National job vacancies declined 5.9% over the same period with decreases in four provinces. British Columbia and Ontario reported the largest declines while Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island reported the largest increases in job vacancies.
Nationally, the accommodation and food services sector had the highest job vacancy rate (8.5%) and the second highest number of job vacancies at 118,850. This industry has had the highest vacancy rate among all industries for over a year.
After accommodation and food services, the next highest job vacancy rates in Canada were reported in health care and social assistance, personal and repair services and administration, support and waste management. The lowest vacancy rates were in education, utilities, and public administration.
Health care and social assistance had the highest number of vacancies at 162,140 in January. Both the number of vacancies and the job vacancy rate (6.7%) increased compared to January 2022.
Notes: 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 14-10-0432-01 Job vacancies, payroll employees, and job vacancy rate by provinces and territories, monthly, adjusted for seasonality, Table 14-10-0406-01 Job vacancies, payroll employees, and job vacancy rate by industry sector, monthly, adjusted for seasonality
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