Job Vacancies in Canada Down Almost 4% Q4 2023

March 20, 2024 - Statistics Canada released job vacancy data for Q4 2023 yesterday, showing a decline of 3.8%, or 25,400 jobs. Total job vacancies stood at 678,500 in Q4. This is the sixth consecutive quarterly decline from the record high of 983,000 in Q2 2022. Hardest hit were sales and service occupations, manufacturing and utilities, and natural resources, agriculture and related production occupations, which collectively accounted for a decrease of 22,500 job vacancies "lost". There were 1.8 unemployed persons for each available job, up from 1.7 in Q3 2023 and 1.2 in Q4 2022. Combined with the increase in the unemployment rate between April and December 2023, which grew from 5.0% to 5.8%, this indicates that the economy is softening.

Job vacancies in trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations (the group which includes construction) were little changed from Q3 2023, at 137,900 jobs. However, job vacancies in this sector declined by 35,000 jobs (-21.4%) compared to Q4 2022. Notably, construction trade helpers and labourers' vacancies fell by 3,200 in the year, accounting for just over 9% of the "lost" vacancies. As a further indicator, job vacancies for carpenters fell by 5,640 (-47.1%) from Q4 2022 to Q4 2023. You can read more here.