(Ottawa) The labor shortage afflicting the Canadian economy is particularly evident in the increase in the number of job vacancies, which are found particularly in Quebec.
Statistics Canada counted 553,500 job vacancies nationally in the first quarter of 2021, up 7.9% from the same period last year and 9.4% more than in the first quarter of 2019.
The vacancy rate was 3.6% in the first three months of this year, the highest rate since comparable data began to be released in 2015.
As job vacancies grew, the number of unemployed rose sharply over the same period, by 427,000, due to public health restrictions associated with COVID-19.
Statistics Canada noted that in the first quarter of 2021, the number of vacancies in the healthcare and social assistance sector jumped 39% in one year, the largest increase among all sectors, to 98,700.
The number of job vacancies in the construction sector rose 33.1% to 46,400, the highest number since 2015.
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