Canada's job vacancies post 7th straight quarterly decline

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Canada's job vacancies fell in the first quarter of 2024, marking the seventh consecutive quarterly decline from the record-high of 983,600 reached in the second quarter of 2022, according to the nation's statistical authority.

Job vacancies declined by 24,300, or 3.6%, to 648,600 in the first quarter of this year, Statistics Canada said Wednesday in a statement.

While vacancies decreased 24,500, or 4.5%, for permanent positions in the first quarter, vacancies fell more for full-time jobs with a decline of 15,400, or 3.1%, compared to part-time jobs that decreased 8,900, or 5.1%.

The job vacancy rate, which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labor demand, declined 0.2 percentage points to 3.6% in the first quarter, also marking the seventh consecutive quarterly decline.

"There were 2.0 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in the first quarter of 2024. The overall unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio has trended up since the third quarter of 2022," the statement said.

"The steady increase in this ratio from the third quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2024 was driven both by a decrease in job vacancies and by an increase in the number of unemployed persons," it added.