Job vacancies in brief, three-month average ending in January 2014
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Released: 2014-04-15
In January, there were 193,000 job vacancies among Canadian businesses, little changed compared with January 2013. There were 6.7 unemployed people for every job vacancy, compared with 6.4 one year earlier.
The national job vacancy rate was 1.3% in January, compared with 1.4% recorded 12 months earlier.
For 2013 as a whole, there was an average of 219,000 job vacancies per month among Canadian businesses, down from 252,000 in 2012 and 236,000 in 2011.
For every job vacancy, there were 6.2 unemployed people in 2013, up from 5.4 in 2012. The increase in the unemployment-to-job vacancies ratio was the result of fewer job vacancies, as the number of unemployed people was little changed. In 2011, the ratio was 5.9 unemployed people for every job vacancy.
Note to readers
Monthly data are based on three-month moving averages. For example, data for the current month are based on an average of the data from the current month and the previous two months.
Data on job vacancies are not seasonally adjusted and should only be compared on a year-over-year basis. Given this is a new data series, trends are not yet available; therefore, data should be interpreted with caution.
With each release, data for the current reference month are subject to revision. Data have been revised for the previous month. Users are encouraged to request and use the most up-to-date data for each month.
Historical revisions
The entire series of job vacancy statistics have been revised with this release. This is the result of revisions to the Survey of Employment Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) data, which are the source for job vacancy statistics. With the March 31 release of the January SEPH data, SEPH has incorporated an additional method for assigning 2012 NAICS codes to businesses, in addition to historical revisions to a small number of industries by province or territory.
Both the three-month moving average and annual time series for job vacancy statistics are affected by these changes, from 2011 to present. For three-month moving averages at the national level, the number of job vacancies increased by an average of 0.9% (+2,100), while both job vacancy rates and unemployed-to-job vacancies ratios changed by no more than 0.1 points.
The next job vacancies release, for February, will be on May 20.
Contact information
For more information, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca).
To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Emmanuelle Bourbeau (613-951-3007; emmanuelle.bourbeau@statcan.gc.ca), Labour Statistics Division.
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