Statistics Canada reported that job vacancies declined by 43,100 (-5.8%) to reach 701,300 in July 2023, which is a continuation of a steady downward trend since June of last year.

This means that the month in question has witnessed a 273,700 drop in job vacancies on a year-over-year basis, holding vacancies at their lowest level since May of 2021 (when there were 673,400 unfilled positions in the country).

Meanwhile, the job vacancy rate, which is the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand (the sum of filled and unfilled positions) fell by 0.3 percentage points to reach 3.9% in the same month.

On a year-on-year basis, this rate was down by 1.6 per cent due to declines in vacancies (-273,700) and gains of 446,600 in payroll employment (the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer).

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The following five sectors witnessed a fall in July:

This has been the lowest that unfilled position numbers have reached in the retail trade sector since January 2021.

The job vacancy rate in retail trade also dropped since March, which StatsCan asserts to have been caused by the fall in job vacancies, as payroll employment decreased by 0.7% over this time frame.

• Accommodation and food services (a fall of 10,400)

Vacancies in this industry also witnessed steady declines over the months preceding July; the fall in the vacancy rate can be largely attributed to a decline in job vacancies rather than a change in payroll employment, which remained largely steady over the same period.

• Educational services (a fall of 4,500)
• Management of companies and enterprises (a fall of 1,600)
• Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (a fall of 1,600)

The number of vacant positions barely changed in the remaining 15 sectors, healthcare and social assistance being one of them.

July also experienced 1.7 unemployed persons for every job vacancy, which is a climb from 1.5 in June and 1.2 at the beginning of 2023. The increase in the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio this month could largely be attributed to the decrease in vacancies, as the number of unemployed people remained largely steady.

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This gradual increase in the unemployment-job vacancy ratio since the start of this year is largely indicative of easing labour market conditions since July.

Four Canadian provinces had a fall in their job vacancy numbers.

Ontario, for one, had job vacancies fall by 27,700 to 242,600 in July, after little variation was seen in May and June.

Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island were the other three provinces that recorded job vacancies in July, while there was an insignificant change in job vacancy numbers in the other provinces.