Job vacancies drop to lowest point since 2017: Statistics Canada

Job hunters line up at a career fair in the Rogers Centre Ottawa. (Dylan Dyson/CTV News)

Job seekers face an increasingly difficult market as new Statistics Canada data reports vacancies were the lowest in almost a decade.

The Statistics Canada report states vacancies across Canada were 457,400 in August. Vacancies were 435,500 in August 2017. The numbers of this year coincide with a rise in the unemployment rate.

The job vacancy rate, which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand, was 2.6 per cent in August.

On a year-over-year basis, the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio was up by 0.7 in August 2025. Over the same period, the unemployment rate rose from 6.7 per cent to 7.1 per cent in August. The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio excludes the territories for consistency with the comparable Labour Force Survey data.

The only industries that recorded an increase in job vacancies were agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting.

Job vacancies were little changed in the other sectors.

Job vacancies fall in three sectors

The data indicates increased competition for fewer available jobs, with the largest unemployment rate in transportation and warehousing, information and cultural industries and retail and wholesale trade.

The unemployment drop was particularly noticed in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. At the same time, job vacancies were little changed in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Increase in average weekly earnings

Average weekly earnings bumped up three per cent to $1,312 in August, following an increase of 3.2 per cent in July. Month over month, average weekly earnings were unchanged in August.