Driven by a rise in payrolls, total labour demand ticked up in the fourth quarter of 2024, even as job vacancies remained flat, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
The national statistical agency reported that labour demand (the total of filled and unfilled jobs) was up by 0.1% in the final quarter of 2024, as payroll employment climbed by 24,700 in the period.
At the same time, the crop of vacant jobs remained “virtually unchanged” in the quarter, ending a streak of nine consecutive quarters of declining vacancies that started in the second quarter of 2022, when the number of unfilled jobs peaked at almost 1 million.
The job vacancy rate — unfilled jobs as a share of total labour demand — also held steady at 3.1% in the fourth quarter, StatCan said.
Yet, on a year-over-year basis, the rate was down by 0.7 percentage points in 2024, as the number of job vacancies dropped by 126,600 in 2024 — including a decline of 84,200 full-time jobs, and a 42,400 fall in unfilled part-time positions.
The ratio of unemployed workers to job vacancies also rose in the fourth quarter, as an additional 53,500 workers found themselves out of a job in the quarter. That boosted the ratio to 2.8 jobless workers for every unfilled position in the fourth quarter, up from 2.7 in the previous quarter.
“The overall unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio has trended up since the third quarter of 2022, when it was 1.1,” StatCan reported, as the population of unemployed workers climbed by 43.2% over the period, and the number of open jobs dropped by 42.8%.
Despite the apparent weakening in labour market conditions, wages continue to rise.
StatCan reported that average hourly wages rose 4.4% in the fourth quarter, and the average offered wage for vacant positions was up 7.4% in the quarter.
“Recent increases in average offered hourly wages for vacant positions were partly due to a shift in the relative composition of job vacancies towards occupations that typically offer higher wages,” it said.
Holding the composition of open jobs constant, average offered hourly wages were up 5.0% in the fourth quarter, compared with 5.1% in the third quarter, and 4.2% in the second quarter, StatCan said.