Statistics Canada says the number of job vacancies in Canada in August edged down 2.4% from July to reach their lowest figure since 2017.
The agency says the 457,400 vacancies was the lowest number since August 2017, excluding the April-to-September 2020 period when data was unavailable during the pandemic.
On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down 15.2% in August.
Statistics Canada says the job vacancy rate — which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand — was 2.6% in August, unchanged from July.
The job vacancy rate in August 2024 was 3%.
The agency says there were 3.5 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in August, the highest unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio since November 2016, excluding the April-to-September period in 2020.