Job vacancies decline at a slower pace in the fourth quarter
Job vacancies fell by 25,400 (-3.6%) to 678,500 in the fourth quarter of 2023, marking the sixth straight quarterly decline from the record high reached in the second quarter of 2022 (983,600).
Meanwhile, payroll employment rose by 37,700 (+0.2%) in the fourth quarter of 2023. Total labour demand (the sum of filled and vacant positions) in the fourth quarter was virtually unchanged from the third quarter and was up 0.5% from the fourth quarter of 2022.
The job vacancy rate—which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand—decreased 0.1 percentage points to 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2023, marking the sixth consecutive quarterly decline. The job vacancy rate in the fourth quarter was at its lowest since the first quarter of 2021.
There were 1.8 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in the fourth quarter of 2023, up from 1.7 in the previous quarter, and 1.2 in the fourth quarter of 2022.
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