Canada / 5.3 unemployed per job vacancy, down from 5.7 a year ago

There were 267,000 job vacancies among Canadian businesses in September, up 19,000 from 12 months earlier. For every job vacancy, there were 5.3 unemployed people, down from 5.7 in September 2011.

The decline in the ratio of unemployment to job vacancies was all the result of the increase in job vacancies.

Ratio highest in the East, lowest in the Prairies

Provincially, the highest ratios of unemployed people to job vacancies were in Eastern Canada. In Newfoundland and Labrador, there were 11.2 unemployed people for every vacancy in September, followed by Nova Scotia (9.6) and New Brunswick (8.5). These figures were little changed from 12 months earlier.

Chart 1 

Unemployment-to-job vacancies ratio, all unemployed, by province, three-month average, September 2011 and September 2012

In British Columbia, the ratio in September was 5.3 unemployed people for every job vacancy, down from 7.1 in September 2011. The decline in the ratio was the result of both an increase in job vacancies and a decrease in unemployment over this period.

The Prairie provinces accounted for 12% of all unemployed people in Canada but 32% of all job vacancies; as a result, their ratios of unemployed people per job vacancy were the lowest of all provinces.

In Manitoba, the ratio declined from 4.2 to 3.5 during the 12-month period, mostly because of an increase in job vacancies, from 9,600 to 11,400.

In Alberta, there were 1.7 unemployed people for every job vacancy, down from 2.8 in September 2011. The decline was a result of both a decline in the number of unemployed people and an increase in job vacancies. The ratio for Saskatchewan was 2.1, little changed from 12 months earlier.

In Prince Edward Island, the ratio fell over this 12-month period, from 10.9 unemployed people per job vacancy to 8.2. This was the result of a slight increase in job vacancies from 700 to 1,000, while the number of unemployed people was unchanged (see “data quality” in the Note to readers).

In September, the ratio was 7.2 in Ontario and 6.6 in Quebec, little changed from 12 months earlier.

Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via The Daily — Job vacancies, three-month average ending in September 2012.