Statistics Canada says employers were actively seeking to fill 997,000 vacant positions in the second quarter, the highest quarterly number on record.
The agency says the number of vacancies for the three-month period was up 4.7% or 45,000 compared with the first quarter and up 42.3% or 296,500 compared with the second quarter of last year.
The job vacancy rate was 5.7%, also a record high.
The health care and social assistance sector had 136,100 job vacancies in the second quarter compared with 135,300 in the first quarter, but up 28.8% or 30,500 on a year-over-year basis.
Meanwhile, the number of vacancies in the accommodation and food services sector rose 12.7% or 16,800 on a quarter-over-quarter basis to 149,600 in the second quarter.
There was also a record number of vacant jobs in the professional, scientific and technical services sector at 74,600, up 7.9% from the first quarter.