London job vacancies halved but some sectors still struggling to find workers

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Job vacancies in the London region have fallen by almost half since peaking in 2022, new data from Statistics Canada shows.

But that doesn’t mean finding workers has stopped being a problem for local businesses, with thousands of jobs still waiting to be filled, says an industry observer.

According to StatsCan, there were 10,355 job vacancies in the London metropolitan census area, which also includes Strathroy, St. Thomas and parts of Elgin and Middlesex counties, in the first quarter of 2024.

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By comparison, in the second half of 2022, there were 21,600 vacancies in the region.

Job vacancies in London, like across the country, peaked in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus were lifted and businesses began to reopen and companies began mass recruitment drives.

Since then, higher interest rates set by the Bank of Canada, which have slowed the Canadian economy, as well as population growth have contributed to lowering these numbers, to name just a few factors.

According to Jamie Rudolph-Zbarsky, an analyst at Statistics Canada, despite a clear decline over the past two years, the number of vacancies is still high.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve necessarily recovered,” he said. “If you look at employment, it’s higher than it was pre-COVID, so the employment rate has gone up (but) the number of job openings is still a little bit higher than it was historically.”

Locally, job vacancies fell at one of the fastest rates in Western Ontario over the past year, down 27.7 per cent. That compares with a decline of 25.1 per cent in Kitchener-Waterloo and Barrie, 19.7 per cent in the Windsor-Sarnia area and 19.2 per cent in the Hamilton-Niagara Peninsula region.

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However, in some sectors there are still difficulties in hiring new workers.

Healthcare-related professions lead the way in this category, with over 2,100 positions available in London in the first quarter of the year.

This is followed by about 1,860 job openings in sales and service occupations and 1,640 in education, law, social, community and government services, according to Statistics Canada.

Labour shortages in some sectors and a lack of experience required for some roles are among the reasons why some positions remain unfilled and businesses continue to report difficulties in filling staff, said Deb Mountenay, interim executive director of the Elgin Middlesex Oxford Workforce Planning and Development Board.

But the number of jobs available is just as large, which can lead to a lack of cooperation between companies and workers, Mountenay said.

“Businesses are still very active in hiring,” she said. But “we track 41 different job boards in the London economic region alone.

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“That becomes part of the challenge when companies are actually posting and people are actually looking for them, there’s a greater chance of missing out on what could be a good opportunity for both parties.”

Mr Mountenay said that while job vacancies may be growing in the right direction, the London region must continue to make efforts to attract talent to the region, with major projects such as the Volkswagen battery plant in St Thomas taking place there.

“At the same time, we still have people who are reaching 65 who are going to be leaving the workforce,” she said. “We’re still only seeing the tail end of the baby boom generation who are going to continue to leave the workforce, so that’s going to be a challenge as well.”

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