CFIB report shows historic highs in private-sector vacancies
According to data released by the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses yesterday, private-sector job vacancies remain at historic highs.
The CFIB’s latest report on vacancies—for the third quarter of this year—shows a national vacancy rate of 3.2 percent, the fifth quarter at this level. Vacancy rates among construction companies were even higher, at 4.7 percent. Construction reported the second-highest vacancy rate overall. Only the personal services industry, which represents businesses like hairdressers, dry cleaners and funeral services, maintained a higher vacancy rate at 4.9 percent.
The CFIB report shows that there are approximately 433,000 unfilled job openings in the private sector. That total is about 1,500 more than in the second quarter of this year. Ontario private-sector employers have a total of 168,000 open positions.
Vacancy rates vary by industry and region. The most acute labour vacancy issues are in Quebec (4.0 percent) and British Columbia (3.8 percent). Ontario is right on the national average at 3.2 percent while rates in the Maritimes range from 1.9 to 3.0 percent. Vacancy rates in the Prairies and in Newfoundland and Labrador—those regions most affected by the resource sector crunch—each pushed a tenth of a point higher, although they all remain under the national average by up to a full percentage point. All other provinces saw no change in rates.
There are similarly wide variations by industry, but sector-specific movements are showing up as well. Industries dominated by smaller-sized companies tend to have higher vacancy rates compared to big-business sectors. In addition, despite overall stability of the aggregate vacancy measure in the past year, CFIB notes gradually rising vacancy rates in the agriculture, information, and hospitality sectors, and declining rates in manufacturing, transportation, wholesale and retail.
Construction’s national vacancy rate has risen by 0.1 percentage point since the third quarter of last year, and by a full percentage point since the third quarter of 2017.
Although geography and sector are factors, the drivers of vacancies are more significantly determined by future outlooks, growth intentions, business size and firm-specific job characteristics. There is also a strong influence on wages. Employers with at least one vacancy expect to push average organization-wide wage levels up by 2.3 percent in Q3—versus a 1.4 percent gain planned by businesses without any job openings.