Job vacancies were down by 14,000 to 492,500 in the third quarter, a 2.8% fall from the previous quarter, according the Statistics Canada.
This is the third consecutive quarter of declines this year, following a 3.6% fall in the first quarter and a 3.5% decline in the second quarter. Job vacancies have been on a downward trend since the 2022 peak of 985,900.
Vacancies for full-time positions fell by 11,000 (-3%) for the third quarter, while there was little change to part-time positions. Permanent positions also fell by 12,800 (-3.1%) while temporary positions were relatively stable.
Year over year, job vacancies were down for both full-time (-50,800 or -12.3%) and part-time (-5,100 or -3.8%) positions in the third quarter.
The proportion of vacancies where recruitment efforts have been ongoing for 90 days or more continued to trend down. In the third quarter, 27.1% of job vacancies were long-term, down from 31.6% during the same quarter in 2024. This indicates that employers had fewer difficulties filling available positions.
Total labour demand rose by 18,900 (0.1%) in the third quarter, as the decline in vacancies was more than offset by the 32,900 (0.2%) increase in payroll employment.
Compared with a year earlier, job vacancies were down for all combined educational levels in the third quarter. Vacancies requiring a high school diploma or less fell the most (-27,300 or -9%) and accounted for nearly half (49.4%) of the decline.
The average hourly wage offered for vacant positions grew 3.3% to $28.45 in the third quarter, slower than the 4.5% growth rate in the previous quarter. A similar wage growth deceleration was seen for full-time and part-time positions as well as for permanent and temporary positions.