Employers in Canada face labour shortages in many sectors. However, healthcare, construction, and the restaurant and hospitality sectors experience the most acute labour shortage when compared to other sectors.
Based on Statistics Canada's report which was published on January 27, 2022, in November 2021, the healthcare sector had 119,600 vacancies with a 5.2% job vacancy rate. Construction and the restaurant and hospitality sectors doubled the number of job vacancies compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
Despite the number of vacancies being down 9.3 percent or 89,600 positions in November 2021, it was still much higher than before the pandemic. The number of vacancies increased by 72.0% (+366,100) as compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
In November, the job vacancy rate, which measures vacant positions as a share of all positions (vacant and occupied), was 5.1%, up 2.1 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2019, but 0.8 percentage points below the peak of 5.9% reached in September 2021.
The number of job vacancies declined in six provinces in November (not seasonally adjusted). Newfoundland and Labrador (-3,600; -41.5%) and New Brunswick (-3,100; -20.7%) had the largest declines, while Quebec (-17,800; -7.1%) had the smallest. Even as the number of vacancies hit a record high of 27,300, Manitoba's job vacancy rate (4.5%) remains below the national average (5.1%).
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