07:27 AM EDT, 08/28/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Canada announced this week a tightening in the temporary foreign worker program for below-median wage earners, noted Bank of Montreal (BMO).

To which the bank would say "not a moment too soon."

As a brief reminder, the program was loosened significantly in mid-2022, an exceptional period for the labor market, pointed out BMO. At that point, there were roughly one million job openings and also around one million unemployed Canadians -- essentially full employment.

However, that episode truly did prove to be "exceptional" and conditions have more than normalized, stated the bank. There are now fewer than 560,000 open jobs -- and falling fast -- while there are 1.4 million unemployed people.

Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada is close to the highest number of unemployed since 2011. So, instead of the ultra-tight conditions of one unemployed person per vacant job, Canada is now

at 2.5 for every one, not at all a tight market, added BMO.