Alberta’s job vacancy rate (1) continues to move closer to where it was before the pandemic. Data released this morning from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours show that the vacancy rate fell to 3.0% in July—the lowest it has been since January 2021 and only 0.4 percentage points higher than the average rate in 2019 prior to pandemic (2).

Nationally, the job vacancy rate was also 3.0% in July.

The vacancy rate in Alberta and Canada spiked as the economy began to recover from the pandemic, reaching a high in Alberta of 5.2% in April 2022 while the national rate topped out at 5.7%. Alberta’s vacancy rate has moved more in line with the national average since early 2023, after spending many years below it following the 2015-16 recession.

A lower vacancy rate is generally associated with a “looser” or “cooling” labour market where there are more workers (with the right qualifications) available and/or less demand for workers by employers.

That said, there is a high degree of variation across the economy. New quarterly data break down the job vacancy rate by industry.

While the vacancy rate has come down from two summers ago in 19 of the 20 main industry categories (3), it remained above the average rate in five sectors.

Accommodation and food services, which saw its vacancy rate reach the highest level of any industry at 10.2% in the third quarter of 2021, still had the highest rate as of the second quarter of this year at 6.3%.

The construction sector was next on the list with a vacancy rate of 4.9%, an improvement over previous levels but still an issue in a province trying to build enough homes to keep with its explosive population growth.

The other three sectors with above-average rates in the second quarter were other services (which includes, for example, vehicle repair to hair styling businesses) at 4.8%, administrative and support, waste management and remediation services at 4.4%, and transportation and warehousing at 3.8%.

With that said, employers continue to report challenges finding skilled workers. According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, 36% of small businesses in Alberta said that a shortage of skilled labour was a limitation on sales or production growth (18% said unskilled/semi-skilled shortages were a problem) as of its August Business Barometer survey.

1. The job vacancy rate is the number of vacant positions expressed as a percentage of labour demand (occupied positions and vacant positions).

2. All data in today’s Twenty-Four have been seasonally adjusted.

3. Educational services is the exception, but at just 1.7%, its vacancy rate was the second lowest on the list and up only a tenth of a percentage point compared to the second quarter of 2022.

Answer to the previous trivia question: The millennials were born from 1981 to 1996 and were aged 27 to 43 years on July 1, 2024.

Today’s trivia question: How long does it take after completing medical school to become certified in neurosurgery in Canada?