The number of job vacancies in the country reached 1,005,700 in May, up slightly from the peak observed during the month of April, according to Statistics Canada data released Thursday.

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The number of vacancies, however, is up 42.5% (300,100) from May 2021, the federal agency noted, adding that this number “increased steadily until December 2021, before stabilize somewhat in recent months.

The job vacancy rate in Canada held steady at 5.8% for a second straight month, but was up 4.4% from a year earlier.

“Due to the low unemployment rate, which reached 5.1%, and the high number of vacancies, the unemployment-to-vacancy ratio stood at 1.1 in May, down from 2. .4 recorded a year earlier. A lower unemployment-to-vacancy ratio indicates a tighter labor market and possible labor shortages,” Statistics Canada said.

The health care and social assistance sector saw the largest increase in its number of vacancies (14.5%) to reach 143,400 in May. The number of job vacancies remained almost unchanged in the other sectors on a month-to-month basis. This is particularly the case for accommodation and food services (161,100), retail trade (99,200), manufacturing (86,800), construction (84,600) and transportation and warehousing (51,100), whose number of vacancies also changed little in May.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of job vacancies reached record levels in Nova Scotia (22.1% to 24,600) and Manitoba (15.3%; 32,200).

The ratio of unemployed to job vacancies also varied from province to province. While there was less than one unemployed person for every job vacancy in Quebec (0.7) and British Columbia (0.8), there were almost three unemployed people for every job vacancy in Newfoundland and -Labrador (3), "a ratio of unemployed to vacant positions higher than that observed in all the other provinces", according to the federal organization.

Rising wages

Statistics Canada also pointed out that almost all provinces posted wage increases, in more than half of the sectors. Average weekly earnings were up 2.5% from a year earlier, “representing a slower rate of growth than that recorded in April (3.2%) and March (4.2%) “, it was however specified.

By comparison, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 7.7% in May.