Vancouver sees record high job vacancies

The pandemic brought instability for a lot of people around the world, with unemployment rates skyrocketing. This caused a global economic slowdown for many industries. We saw an increase in poverty, malnutrition, and insecurity in many different countries.

Fortunately, Canada has experienced an incredibly fast recovery. In the second quarter of 2021, Canada’s job vacancy rate was 4.6% with a total of 731,900 job vacancies which is the highest on record since the last data was available in 2015 as shown in Figure 1 (Statistics Canada 2021). Also, according to Statista (2021), the unemployment rate in Canada has gone down from 9.6% to 8% from 2020 to 2021 respectively, projected to decrease until 2026.

Figure 1: Record high number of job vacancies in the second quarter of 2021 (Statistics Canada, 2021)

How is the job market in Vancouver?

The province of British Columbia has begun their restart plan, allowing for the opening of businesses who follow provincial protocols. With nearly 80% of the population vaccinated with their first dose, employment levels are rising, the economy has stabilized and the workforce has been growing steadily since March 2021.

BC has managed to record the strongest recovery in terms of job vacancies amongst all the Canadian provinces and is the only province where employment surpasses pre-pandemic levels. The BC’s unemployment level went from 6.2% to 5.9% as shown in Figure 2 (Labour Market Statistics 2021).

In September 2021, the workforce grew by more than 5000 for a total of 84,500, the number of jobs increased by more than 12,300 and employment has increased by 153,100. For more information on BC statistics, read the Labour Force Statistics Highlights paper with all the updated statistics for September 2021.

Figure 2: Unemployment Rate (Labour Market Statistics, 2021)

What sectors are having the most job opportunities?

The BC provincial government eased the restrictions put in place amid the pandemic for the last half of 2021, resulting in a demand that has allowed many businesses to return to normal operations. The hospitality and food sectors suffered a great impact from the pandemic, however, the recovery that BC managed to have is allowing the economy to thrive.

The sectors that are having more job opportunities in BC are manufacturing with a record of job vacancies of 65,900, construction with a record of 62,600 open positions, the health care sector with more than 148,100 open positions, retail was up to 84,300 job vacancies, and accommodation and food services with 89,100 job vacancies.

For more information, you can visit B.C.’s Industries and Sectors and B.C. Labour Market Outlook (2019-2029) to get detailed statistics from every work industry, top occupations and employment outlooks.

If interested in finding job opportunities please go to the article ‘How to find jobs as an international student in Canada‘ where you can find websites that can help you to look for jobs. Also, remember to check out the JobsConnect section on the Acsenda website which can help you connect with different employers depending on your interests!