A new report from Statistics Canada is raising questions about the seriousness of what the Conservative government says is a major national problem: jobs going wanting due to a lack of skilled labour.
At the time of the February budget, Finance Canada published analysis saying the job vacancy rate is on the rise and the situation is poised to get worse over the coming years.
But Statistics Canada – which uses different methodology – reported Tuesday there there were just under 200,000 job vacancies in December, a drop of 21,000 from 12 months earlier. The number of vacancies is the lowest ever recorded since Statistics Canada began tracking the figure in March 2011.
The job vacancy rate – the number of vacant positions divided by total filled and unfilled jobs – dropped from 1.5 per cent to 1.3 per cent.
Statistics Canada also reported there were 6.3 unemployed people for every job vacancy, which was up from 5.7 in December 2012.
The higher ratio was attributed to the drop in job vacancies, as the number of unemployed people – 1.2 million – did not change much.
The report maintains the unusual situation in which two arms of the federal government are providing contradictory statistics on what is a central policy issue for the governing Conservatives.
When Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabled his Feb. 11 budget, he also released a 54-page “Jobs Report” on the state of the Canadian labour market.
That report claimed the job vacancy rate stood at 4 per cent and has been “increasing steadily since 2009” when it was at 3.1 per cent. It said labour shortages are expected to continue to increase in the coming years.
The Finance report is based on online job posting data compiled by Wanted Analytics, as well as data from Statistics Canada and calculations by Finance Canada.
Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/statistics-canada-contradicts-conservatives-claim-of-unfilled-jobs-problem/article17544292/
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