06:46 AM EST, 12/20/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The number of job vacancies in Canada fell heavily again in October, yet another sign that the labor market is soft, said Bank of Montreal (BMO).

Openings fell by 15,000 in the month to 513,000, the lowest since pre-pandemic days in 2018, and carved in half since the 2022 peak, noted the bank.

Expressed another way, the vacancy rate fell to 2.9% -- lowest since 2017 -- and roughly half the 5.7% peak in

2022.

In the meantime, the number of unemployed people continues to rise higher, rising above 1.5 million, pointed out BMO.

That's nearly three times the number of vacant jobs -- at the tightest point in mid-2022, there were almost as many vacant jobs as unemployed people. Those days are long gone, stated the bank.

Not surprisingly, the vacancy rate is the lowest in the four Atlantic provinces and Ontario, the regions with the highest jobless rates, added BMO. The latter has seen its

unemployment rate pop two percentage points in the past 18 months to 7.6%.