Vacancies for nurses, support workers tripled since 2016, StatCan finds

The number of vacancies for nurses and personal support workers in Canada has tripled between 2016 and 2024, a new report by Statistics Canada found, with the vacancies in remote areas twice as high.

From 2016 to 2024, the vacancy rate (the proportion of all vacant positions) for health-related occupations nearly tripled, increasing from 2.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent, the report said.

Vacancies for nurses and personal support workers were the highest among health-care workers, with the vacancy rate for licensed practical nurses at 12.8 per cent.

While most vacancies were in larger urban centres that the report described as more accessible, vacancy rates for these occupations were nearly twice as high in remote regions (9.3 per cent) compared with accessible regions (5.5 per cent).

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Remote regions were also more likely to have long-term vacancies of 90 days or more. More than six out of 10 vacancies for registered nurses (61.8 per cent) and licensed practical nurses (62.3 per cent) in remote regions were long-duration vacancies in 2024.

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This is despite the fact that the hourly wage for registered nursing vacancies in remote regions ($37.49) was slightly higher than the corresponding hourly wage offered in urban regions ($35.66).

Similarly, the average offered hourly wage for licensed practical nurses in remote regions ($31.53) was higher than in accessible regions ($29.59).

On the other hand, the offered hourly wages for personal support workers were on average slightly lower in remote regions ($22.63) compared with accessible regions ($23.91), the report said.

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What about doctors?

While the Statistics Canada report didn’t look at vacancies for physician roles, a separate report released on Tuesday suggested the number of doctors has risen faster than population growth.

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The number of doctors in Canada has nearly tripled (a 195 per cent increase) since the 1970s, a new report by the Generation Squeeze Lab at the University of British Columbia called ‘The Doctor Shortage Myth’ said on Tuesday.

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Not only has the number of doctors gone up significantly, but it has also far outpaced general population growth in Canada at 76 per cent, the report said, citing data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

In 1976, Canada had 33,727 physicians, or 144 physicians per 100,000 residents, the report said.

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In 2024, this number was up to 99,555, or 241 physicians per 100,000 residents.

Despite the number of doctors growing over the last few decades, access to health care feels worse for many Canadians, said Paul Kershaw, UBC professor and lead author of the report.

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“The issue isn’t the number of doctors — it’s the surge in demand driven by population aging, combined with the fact that governments didn’t collect enough revenue from boomers when they were younger,” Kershaw said.

Retirees use roughly four times more medical care than adults under the age of 50, the report said.

“As millions of boomers entered high-demand age groups, the effective patient-load increased dramatically – although not nearly as fast as the number of doctors increased,” it added.

The growth in the number of physicians has even outpaced the rise in age-adjusted medical demand, which has grown by 135 per cent since the 1970s.

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Doctors are also working fewer hours than they did in the 1970s, the report found.

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While physician headcount is up, total physician hours have grown slowly.

“Imagine a concert where organizers triple the number of ticket booths, but each booth is open fewer hours than it used to be. That’s Canada’s medical care system,” Kershaw said.

“We’ve added doctors faster than age-adjusted demand has grown, but physicians aren’t working the same number of hours they once did,” he added.

According to the Canadian Medical Association, doctors in Canada work 20 per cent more hours than the average Canadian. The average family doctor works 52 hours per week, while the average specialist works 53 hours per week and the average surgeon works 62 hours per week.

Of those average weekly hours, roughly 15 are spent on administrative work and other tasks.

More than half of doctors in Canada reported burnout, and nearly half said they planned to cut back on their hours when surveyed by the Canadian Medical Association in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.