{"id":61001,"date":"2025-06-18T11:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/06\/18\/job-vacancies-slump-as-tariffs-push-some-sectors-below-pre-pandemic-levels\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T11:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:37:15","slug":"job-vacancies-slump-as-tariffs-push-some-sectors-below-pre-pandemic-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/06\/18\/job-vacancies-slump-as-tariffs-push-some-sectors-below-pre-pandemic-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Job vacancies slump as tariffs push some sectors below pre-pandemic levels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jobs outpace population growth for first time since 2023\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p28hYEEXFiM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> The weight of <\/p>\n<p>                        Donald Trump<\/p>\n<p>                        \u2018s tariffs is being felt in several sectors of the Canadian <\/p>\n<p>                        labour market<\/p>\n<p>                        , with job vacancies in some industries dropping below pre-pandemic levels, says an economist. <\/p>\n<p> Job vacancies<\/p>\n<p>                         fell 3.8 per cent in the first quarter from the fourth quarter of 2024 and were down 18.1 per cent from the same quarter last year, according to <\/p>\n<p>                        Statistics Canada data released Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe general message of the report is we have a slowing labour market,\u201d Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist at credit union Alberta Central, said. \u201cWe are seeing signs of increased slack in the economy and businesses that are not willing to hire.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> He said tariffs are one of the factors having an effect on vacancies, pointing out that vacancies in the trade-sensitive retail sector fell to their lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2016. Warehousing and transportation vacancies dropped to their lowest level since the third quarter of 2017. <\/p>\n<p> Other sectors where openings have contracted below 2019 levels include information and culture and finance and insurance. <\/p>\n<p> Overall, job vacancies are down to average levels recorded pre-pandemic. <\/p>\n<p> Still, the declining number of vacancies signals that Canada\u2019s job market is \u201cstalling,\u201d St-Arnaud said. <\/p>\n<p> Statistics Canada has tracked a rising unemployment rate and negative average job gains from February to May. <\/p>\n<p> The jobless rate in Canada currently stands at seven per cent, and has steadily risen since dropping to a record low of 4.8 per cent in July 2022. <\/p>\n<p> The vacancy report lines up with what the job numbers have been telegraphing, St-Arnaud said. <\/p>\n<p> In the first quarter, the number of unemployed people rose 200,900, while the number of job vacancies fell by 115,200. <\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/22097836\/embed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> That led to the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio \u2014 the number of people without work per position \u2014 rising to 2.9 per cent in the first quarter compared to 2.8 per cent in the fourth quarter and two per cent a year ago. <\/p>\n<p> Along with tariffs, \u201crelatively weak\u201d economic growth over the past few quarters has discouraged businesses from making new hires, something that is proven out by a \u201cnegative\u201d Canadian Federation of Independent Business hiring intentions index. <\/p>\n<p> Slowing population growth curbed demand and that, too, has dampened hiring, St-Arnaud said. <\/p>\n<p> Another symptom of shrinking vacancies and demand for workers is the slowing average hourly wage growth. <\/p>\n<p> Statistics Canada also said vacancies fell the most for jobs that called for a high school diploma or less. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Canada&#8217;s youth job market &#8216;in dire straits&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>Canada&#8217;s unemployment rate hits 7%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> St-Arnaud said the first quarter results likely pave the way for more of the same in the second quarter. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing will likely continue: the same trend of (a) continued, gradual, kind of more marginal decline in the vacancy rate going forward,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p> <em>\u2022 Email: gmvsuhanic@postmedia.com <\/em> <\/p>\n<p> <em><strong>Bookmark our website and support our journalism:<\/strong> Don\u2019t miss the business news you need to know \u2014 add financialpost.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n<br \/>Job vacancies slump as tariffs push some sectors below pre-pandemic levels<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2025-06-18 11:37:15<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The weight of Donald Trump \u2018s tariffs is being felt in several sectors of the Canadian labour market , with job vacancies in some industries dropping below pre-pandemic levels, says&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/61003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}