The private sector job vacancy rate in Canada remained fairly unchanged at 2.8% in 2025 Q1, though it is 0.6 percentage points lower than in 2024 Q1.
Vacancy rates show modest movement across provinces
On a yearly basis, Saskatchewan (-1.2 points), New Brunswick (-1.1 points), British Columbia (-0.8 points), and Ontario (-0.7 points) saw the most notable declines. Prince Edward Island was the only province to experience a year-over-year increase in its vacancy rate, rising by 0.3 points.
Personal services and construction sectors lead in vacancy rates
Personal services reported the highest vacancy rate at 4.7%, followed by construction (3.8%) and professional services (3.5%). On a yearly basis, construction saw the most significant decrease (-1.4), followed by information, arts, and recreation (-1.2), the latter already having the lowest vacancy rate at 1.1%.
Vacancy rates remain inversely related to business size
The vacancy rate stood at 5.6% for micro-businesses (fewer than 5 employees), more than three times that of businesses with more than 100 employees (1.7%). However, the largest year-over-year drop among all business size categories was recorded among the smallest firms (-1.3).