Unemployment in Canada: Why is it hard to find a job right now? [Video]

For every vacant job in Canada, there are 2.4 unemployed people.

That was the picture recorded from April to June in Canada, according to Statistics Canada’s second-quarter report on job vacancies.

Vacancies have steadily fallen since the glut of nearly one million open posts in 2022. At the time, one in three businesses had trouble hiring staff due to a labour shortage. Two in five had issues finding skilled staff, and one in four would have to fight to keep them.

The agency says available wages, which may have been lower than what prospective employees were willing to accept at the time, could have limited hiring. Some businesses also said they were weathering a spike in retirements among boomer-aged workers.

Since then, vacancies have dropped. Unemployment has gained steadily to 6.6 per cent from the 4.8 recorded in the summer of 2022. Last quarter, there were just 580,000 available jobs in Canada — a …