Demand for workers in construction jumped to a record high in April, as employers struggle to fill more than 80,000 vacant positions across the sector, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.
The Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours report shows a 27 per cent increase after five consecutive monthly declines and the sector’s job vacancy rate reached a record high of 7.3 per cent, up 1.3 percentage points from February.
Across all sectors, there were 1,012,900 job vacancies reported in Canada at the beginning of March 2022, also a record high. The number of unfilled positions is more than 60 per cent higher than March 2021.
The job vacancy rate reached 5.9 per cent in March 2022, matching the record high observed in September 2021.
Nationally, average weekly earnings also rose by about a per cent, to $1,170 in March. On a year-over-year basis, average weekly earnings have increased 4.3 per cent, more than double the year-over-year increases observed in January and February.