Job vacancies rise again: Statistics Canada

As Canada’s economy limps along, job vacancies are back and wage growth may be slowing, according to new data from Statistics Canada.

The national statistical agency reported that the number of unfilled jobs rose by 2.4% in the first quarter, an increase of 11,800.

“This was the first increase in job vacancies since the second quarter of 2022,” Statistics Canada noted. 

There were increases for both full-time and part-time positions, and in both permanent and temporary postings.

The number of job vacancies rose in five of the 10 broad occupational groups in the first quarter, led by sales and service jobs — a category that saw its first increase since 2021 — followed by trades, transport and equipment operators, and jobs in the natural and applied sciences.

Alongside the increase in job vacancies, payroll employment also rose in the first quarter by 49,100, pushing total labour demand — the total of filled and unfilled positions — up by 0.3% in the quarter.

The job vacancy rate — the share of total demand represented by vacant positions — remained steady in the first quarter at 2.8%, Statistics Canada noted. 

The agency also reported that the share of job vacancies that are considered “long-term” — jobs that have been open for 90 days or more — was down by 3.2 percentage points from the same quarter a year ago, which Statistics Canada said, “indicates that employers had fewer difficulties filling available positions compared with a year earlier.”

Against that backdrop, growth in the average offered hourly wage slowed in the first quarter too, it reported — coming in up 2.2% from a year ago, compared with a 3.4% increase in the fourth quarter of 2025.

This contrasts with the latest data from Statistics Canada’s labour force survey which showed that average hourly wages for all employees rose by 4% in the first quarter, faster than the 3.5% gain recorded in the previous quarter.

Statistics Canada said that the slowdown in average offered wages partly reflected the fact that low-wage jobs are making up a greater share of the vacancies compared with a year earlier.