jobs because of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the work environment.“It’s very hard to make the argument that you need to physically come to work five days a week,” said Sarah McVanel, chief recognition officer and founder of Greatness Magnified, a company that helps organizations retain top talent and combat burnout.McVanel says that COVID-19 presented Canadians with a different reality that changed the way people think about work.Grocery store, alcohol sales down in April as prices rose: Statistics CanadaAccording to a report released by Statistics Canada on May 24, the number of job vacancies at the beginning of April hit just over one million, up more than 40 per cent compared to last year amid a tight labour market pushing up wages and fuelling inflation concerns.The agency said on its website that employers in Canada were actively seeking to fill 1,001,100 vacant positions, up 23,300 from March of this year and a gain of 308,000 compared to April 2021.Vacancies in the health care and social assistance sectors reached a record high of 136,800, up five per cent from the peak of three months earlier and up 90.9 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic pummelled the economy, according to a report by Statistics Canada, which was released on May 21.
Canada’s job vacancies reach record high in Q1, health sector dominates demand The report went on to state that nurse aide positions, in addition to registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, accounted for 67.7 per cent of the overall vacancies in the health sector compared to the first quarter of 2020.Employers in the construction industry also found it challenging to fill jobs in the first quarter, as 81,500.