OTTAWA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Canada's job vacancies stood at 633,400, virtually unchanged from September, following five consecutive monthly decreases from May to September, Statistics Canada said Thursday.

       The number of unfilled positions in October were at their lowest level since February 2021, the national statistical agency said.

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       Total labour demand, which corresponds to the sum of filled and unfilled positions, declined slightly in October from the peak of 17,895,000 reached in March 2023 as the decrease in vacancies was larger than the corresponding increase in payroll employment over the period.

       The job vacancy rate, which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand, held steady at 3.6 percent in October, but was down from 4.5 percent observed in both March and April.

       There were 1.9 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in October, unchanged from September, but up from 1.3 in March and April. In 2019, the year preceding the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio fluctuated between 2.0 and 2.3, Statistics Canada said.