Labour-market tightness: vacancies and unemployed-per-vacancy, quarterly
Quarterly Canadian labour-market tightness intelligence from Statistics Canada's Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (table 14-10-0398-01, 2015-01 onward) cross-joined with Labour Force Survey unemployment levels (table 14-10-0287-01): the tightness ratio (unemployed persons per job vacancy) for Canada, the 10 provinces and the 3 territories, plus vacancy-rate momentum, year-over-year changes, per-quarter provincial tightness ranks, a 12-quarter tightness z-score, and tightening/loosening flags. Caveats: Q2/Q3 2020 are absent upstream (COVID-19 collection suspension) so momentum columns are null where they depend on those quarters; ratio-derived columns are null for the territories (no monthly SA LFS unemployment levels). Statistics Canada Open Licence (commercial reuse allowed); source: Statistics Canada.
- Source
- Statistics Canada
- Rows
- 644
- Columns
- 21
- Source cadence
- Quarterly
- Last refreshed
- Sep 26, 2026
- Theme
- economy
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| quarter | string | Quarter reference period: first day of the quarter month, ISO date (JVWS quarters are labelled by their first month, e.g. 2026-04 = Q2 2026). (unit: ISO date) |
| country_code | string | ISO alpha-3 country code (CAN for every row). (unit: ISO 3166-1 alpha-3) |
| geo_name | string | Provider-verbatim geography: Canada, a province, or a territory. |
| province_code | string | Short geography code (CA/NL/PE/NS/NB/QC/ON/MB/SK/AB/BC/YT/NT/NU); primary join key with quarter. |
| is_national | integer | 1 for the Canada aggregate row, 0 for provinces/territories. (unit: binary) |
| job_vacancies | integer | Number of job vacancies (JVWS, survey 5217). A job is vacant if vacant on the reference date or becoming vacant during the month, with tasks to carry out and the employer actively seeking an outside worker. (unit: count) |
| payroll_employees | integer | Number of payroll employees (JVWS employee concept: full/part-time, permanent, casual, temporary, seasonal). (unit: count) |
| vacancy_rate_pct | float | Job vacancy rate: vacancies as a percentage of labour demand (occupied + vacant jobs). Quarterly, seasonally adjusted. (unit: percent) |
| unemployed_persons | integer | Unemployed persons (LFS, both sexes 15+): quarterly mean of the three seasonally adjusted monthly levels, rounded to persons. Null for the territories (no monthly SA LFS series). (unit: persons) |
| tightness_ratio | float | Labour-market tightness: unemployed persons per job vacancy (quarterly mean LFS unemployment / JVWS vacancies). Lower = tighter. Null where unemployment is unavailable. (unit: ratio) |
| tightness_rank | integer | Per-quarter rank of tightness_ratio across the 10 provinces (1 = tightest). Null for the Canada row and where the ratio is null. (unit: rank) |
| tightness_z_12q | float | Z-score of tightness_ratio versus its trailing 12-quarter mean/std (inclusive, min 8 quarters). Positive = looser than usual. (unit: z-score) |
| vacancy_rate_qoq_pp | float | Quarter-over-quarter change in the vacancy rate, percentage points. (unit: pp) |
| vacancy_rate_yoy_pp | float | Year-over-year change in the vacancy rate, percentage points. (unit: pp) |
| vacancies_yoy_pct | float | Year-over-year percent change in the vacancy count. (unit: percent) |
| tightness_qoq | float | Quarter-over-quarter change in the tightness ratio (negative = tightening). (unit: ratio) |
| tightness_yoy | float | Year-over-year change in the tightness ratio. (unit: ratio) |
| tightening_flag | integer | 1 when tightness_qoq is negative (fewer unemployed per vacancy than last quarter). (unit: binary) |
| loosening_flag | integer | 1 when tightness_qoq is positive (more unemployed per vacancy than last quarter). (unit: binary) |
| source_table | string | StatCan product IDs behind the row (14100398 JVWS + 14100287 LFS). |
| row_hash | string | Deterministic 16-hex row hash of province_code + quarter (idempotency). |
First 10 sample rows — a preview, not the complete dataset.
| quarter | country_code | geo_name | province_code | is_national | job_vacancies | payroll_employees | vacancy_rate_pct | unemployed_persons | tightness_ratio | tightness_rank | tightness_z_12q | vacancy_rate_qoq_pp | vacancy_rate_yoy_pp | vacancies_yoy_pct | tightness_qoq | tightness_yoy | tightening_flag | loosening_flag | source_table | row_hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Canada | CA | 1 | 445,285 | 15,088,415 | 2.9 | 1,314,600 | 2.952 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | c69dc73a6c914393 |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Newfoundland and Labrador | NL | 0 | — | 203,515 | — | 34,367 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | a023eb10d83ea01a |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Prince Edward Island | PE | 0 | — | 58,575 | — | 8,700 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | e6f27eb4914c06ab |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Nova Scotia | NS | 0 | 10,460 | 381,070 | 2.7 | 44,933 | 4.296 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | 818144045f655996 |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | New Brunswick | NB | 0 | 6,095 | 284,835 | 2.1 | 39,800 | 6.53 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | 3dd119f01c09f33f |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Quebec | QC | 0 | 67,250 | 3,336,985 | 2 | 336,233 | 5 | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | 86b95b2b2b119c5c |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Ontario | ON | 0 | 165,260 | 5,747,640 | 2.8 | 511,433 | 3.095 | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | 453d65ed511c154d |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Manitoba | MB | 0 | 15,450 | 562,550 | 2.7 | 37,667 | 2.438 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | a4a857ff2df49368 |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Saskatchewan | SK | 0 | 15,475 | 466,215 | 3.2 | 28,267 | 1.827 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | 20985709fa8f27e0 |
| 2015-01-01 | CAN | Alberta | AB | 0 | 83,865 | 2,025,505 | 4 | 125,967 | 1.502 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0 | 0 | 14100398+14100287 | 62ee103fa0b5466f |
- Current
20260926T073535Z-e09f85be0622 · sha256 e09f85be0622…
644 rows · first snapshot
Point any LLM at the metadata endpoint — the documentation above is machine-readable too (JSON-LD + Croissant).
curl "https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/statcan_jvws_tightness/ca_labour_tightness_quarterly" | jq '{title, rows, columns_count, license}'import requests
ds = requests.get("https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/statcan_jvws_tightness/ca_labour_tightness_quarterly").json()
print(ds["title"], ds["rows"], "rows")
# Sample rows for an LLM context window
for row in ds.get("sample_rows", [])[:5]:
print(row)API endpoint: https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/statcan_jvws_tightness/ca_labour_tightness_quarterly
Tip: fetch /llms.txt for the full machine-readable catalog.
Where this data comes from and what was made from it. Other people's work shows as counts; only shared projects are named.
Cite this snapshot
Pinned to snapshot 20260926T073535Z-e09f85be0622 and its content hash, so readers get exactly the data you used.
Statistics Canada. (2026). Labour-market tightness: vacancies and unemployed-per-vacancy, quarterly [Data set, snapshot 20260926T073535Z-e09f85be0622, sha256 e09f85be0622]. Datazimuts. Retrieved 2026-09-26, from https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/statcan_jvws_tightness/ca_labour_tightness_quarterly?snapshot=20260926T073535Z-e09f85be0622
@misc{dz_statcan_jvws_tightness_ca_labour_tightne_e09f85be,
title = {{Labour-market tightness: vacancies and unemployed-per-vacancy, quarterly}},
author = {{Statistics Canada}},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Datazimuts},
howpublished = {\url{https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/statcan_jvws_tightness/ca_labour_tightness_quarterly?snapshot=20260926T073535Z-e09f85be0622}},
note = {Snapshot 20260926T073535Z-e09f85be0622, sha256 e09f85be062204598891877d6d07de8c826d0d2c793501f4d6e8d1c875677bb1; accessed 2026-09-26}
}Embed a table or a chart
Paste this into any page. The embed is pinned to the same snapshot, follows the reader's light or dark setting, and always shows the source, license and a link back.
<iframe src="https://datazimuts.com/embed/chart?dataset=statcan_jvws_tightness%2Fca_labour_tightness_quarterly&lang=en&theme=auto&snapshot=20260926T073535Z-e09f85be0622&x=quarter&y=is_national&agg=avg" title="Labour-market tightness: vacancies and unemployed-per-vacancy, quarterly" width="100%" height="380" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
Ask about this dataset. Answers come only from its catalog record, measured profile and change history, and list the facts they used.