Question Period Note: JOB VACANCY DATA FOR THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2025

On September 16th, Statistics Canada released job vacancy data for the second quarter of 2025 from the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (JVWS).

The government of Canada is committed to protecting and supporting workers in this period of uncertainty and change in our labour market.

The government will advance new opportunities, transform to a one-economy agenda, and invest to ensure Canadians have the skills they need to fill in-demand jobs.

Data collected in the JVWS are critical for the analysis of labour market tightness, in conjunction with data from the Labour Force Survey.

The job vacancy rate refers to the share of jobs that are unfilled out of all available payroll jobs. It represents the number of job vacancies expressed as a percentage of labour demand; that is, the sum of all occupied and vacant jobs.

In addition to the number of job vacancies for which employers are recruiting externally, the JVWS collects information on vacancies by occupation, the minimum level of education and work experience required, the wage or salary offered, whether the vacant positions are full-time, part-time, permanent, temporary or seasonal, and the duration of recruitment efforts.

The JVWS questionnaire is distributed on a quarterly basis to about 100,000 business locations operating in Canada (out of a population of close to 1.2 million locations) that have at least two employees (excluding religious organizations, private households, international and extraterritorial public administrations, and government administrations).

Statistics Canada will release the job vacancy data from the JVWS for the third quarter of 2025 on December 16, 2025.

Additional key facts

By occupation (data NOT adjusted for seasonality):

Compared to the second quarter of 2024, job vacancies fell by 16,100 (-9.7%) among sales and service occupations. Within this broad occupational group, retail salespersons and visual merchandisers (-4,400 to 15,700) and cooks (-2,700 to 13,100) saw the largest year-over-year drops in vacancies.

Compared to the second quarter of 2024, the number of job vacancies among trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations declined by 15,900 (-13.9%), led by construction trades helpers and labourers (-3,800 to 10,600) and transport truck drivers (-2,700 to 12,600).

In the second quarter of 2025, job vacancies in health occupations also fell (-20.7% or -18,000) on a year-over-year basis. This decrease was led by registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses (-8,200 to 19,500), nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates (-3,900 to 14,100), and licensed practical nurses (-3,600 to 8,700). These three key nursing occupations accounted for 61.2% of all job vacancies in healthcare.

By province (data adjusted for seasonality):

Between the first and second quarters of 2025, job vacancies fell in Quebec (-7,600 to 113,300), Ontario (-7,300 to 179,000), Manitoba (-1,000 to 18,700), Newfoundland and Labrador (-800 to 4,600) and Prince Edward Island (-500 to 2,000).

The number of vacancies was little changed in the remaining provinces and territories.

Unemployed people per vacancy (data adjusted for seasonality):

In the second quarter of 2025, there were 2.9 unemployed people per job vacancy, unchanged from the previous quarter, but up from 2.2 in the second quarter of 2024

Comparing unemployment and job vacancies can give an indication of how easily unemployed workers find jobs and if workforce skills are in line with those required by employers. A low unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio can indicate that it may be relatively harder for employers to find workers.

The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio was highest for positions requiring a bachelor's degree or higher, at 4.9 in the second quarter of 2025. In comparison, in the second quarter, there were 2.7 unemployed persons per job vacancy requiring other non-university certificates and university certificates below a bachelor's degree and 2.5 unemployed persons for each vacancy requiring a high school diploma or less. Across all education levels, the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio was lowest for positions requiring a trade certificate or diploma, at 1.8 in the second quarter.

Offered hourly wages (data NOT adjusted for seasonality):

Between the second quarters of 2024 and 2025, the average offered hourly wage grew 4.5% to $28.00, driven partially by a shift in the composition of job vacancies towards higher-offered-wage occupations. In comparison, year-over-year average hourly wages of all employees (as measured in the Labour Force Survey) grew 3.3% in the second quarter of 2025.

Holding the composition of job vacancies by occupation fixed at the average of the second quarter of 2024, the year-over-year growth in offered hourly wages would have been 4.1%.

KEY FACTS

The number of job vacancies in the second quarter of 2025 was 3.6% lower than in the previous quarter.

Compared to the record high number of job vacancies observed in the second quarter of 2022 (at 983,600), the number of job vacancies has fallen to 505,900 in the second quarter of 2025, the lowest level recorded since the first quarter of 2018.

The job vacancy rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 2.8% in the second quarter of 2025. Finally, there were in average of 2.9 unemployed persons per job vacancy in Canada in the second quarter of 2025, surpassing what was observed pre-pandemic (2019).