AI Analysis: Job vacancies, payroll employees, and job vacancy rate by industry sector, monthly, unadjusted for seasonality

Executive Summary

Canada's labour market grew significantly over the past decade, with payroll employment rising 16% from 14.8 million to 17.2 million between April 2015 and February 2026, while job vacancies surged to a historic peak of over 1 million in May 2022 before retreating to approximately 458,000 by February 2026. The post-COVID period (2021–2022) was the defining anomaly in the dataset, producing 9 statistically flagged outlier months driven by unprecedented employer demand across sectors. As of February 2026, the labour market has largely stabilized, with a vacancy rate of 2.6% — slightly below the decade average of 3.26%.

Key Findings

• Payroll employment grew by over 2.3 million jobs (+16%) from April 2015 to February 2026, rising from approximately 14.8 million to 17.2 million workers across all industries.
• Job vacancies peaked at 1,037,195 in May 2022 — the single largest outlier in the dataset with a z-score of 2.49 — before declining to approximately 458,000 by February 2026, close to the April 2015 starting level of 483,000.
• Nine outlier months were detected in total job vacancies, all concentrated between late 2021 and mid-2022, reflecting the extraordinary post-pandemic labour demand surge.
• The national job vacancy rate eased from 3.2% in April 2015 to 2.6% in February 2026, compared to a decade-long average of 3.26%, signalling a gradual return to a more balanced labour market.
• Accommodation and Food Services recorded the highest average job vacancy rate at 5.70%, making it a persistent outlier industry and the sector most chronically challenged to fill open positions.
• Job vacancy counts are heavily right-skewed across industries — the mean of 55,480 is more than double the median of 21,690 — indicating that a small number of large sectors drive the majority of unfilled positions.
• The COVID-19 shock is clearly visible in the data, with a sharp employment trough in March 2020 (vacancies dropping to 522,630) followed by the fastest and largest labour market swing in the entire 125-month dataset.