According to a newly published report by Statistics Canada, healthcare, accommodation and food services witnessed significant number of job vacancies.
The month of May saw an increased number of public health measures. During this time, the rate of employers looking for workers was the highest in the accommodation and food services sector. The enhanced health measures also led to record number of open positions in the health sector.
The report says, there were around 671,000 open positions in May for which the employers were recruiting actively. The health sector reported the highest number of openings for the seventh consecutive month, in a row. There were approximately 107,300 job openings in the healthcare sector, accounting for nearly a sixth of all job openings. Followed by the healthcare sector was accommodation and food services which witnessed the second highest number of openings, at 78,000, followed by retail trade at 73,800.
The number of vacancies and vacancy rate differ in their terms slightly. The estimated number of open positions is the number of vacancies while the number of vacant positions as a proportion of all positions is called the vacancy rate.
Referring to Statistics Canada’s payroll, employment and job vacancies report, Quebec had the highest job vacancy rate of all provinces in May, pegged at 5.1%. British Columbia was just behind by 0.1%, at 5%, followed by New Brunswick with 4.9%. At 2.8%, Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest job vacancy rate.
The high vacancy rate of 7.8% may also reflect seasonal hiring and recruitment challenges in the accommodation and food services sector.
Restaurants were forced to shut down due to the lockdown measures in the country amid rising number of COVID-19 infections. This forced the employees to seek social assistance, and this also made it difficult for recruiters to call back their staff. The CBC report claims that people are re-assessing their careers and lifestyles and are worried about their health during the pandemic. The vacancy rates have also been influenced by the smaller number of international students, who are frequently employed in this field.
June saw easing of the lockdown restrictions which led to an increase in employment in lodging and food services nearly by 12% from May to June. Job vacancy rates for June have not been released yet.
Add comment