Ottawa, June 25 : Employers in Canada were actively seeking to fill about one million vacant positions at the beginning of April, up 44.4 per cent from the same period of the previous year. Statistics Canada said that there was an average of 1.1 unemployed people for each job vacancy in April, down from 1.2 in March, and down from 2.4 one year earlier, reported Xinhua news agency. The national statistical office added that labour shortage trends continue in Canada with record high job vacancies in many sectors. The number of job vacancies in the construction sector reached a new high of 89,900 in April, up 15.4 per cent from March and up 43.3 per cent from April 2021. Job vacancies also increased to a record high in April in professional, scientific and technical services; transportation and warehousing; finance and insurance; arts, entertainment and recreation; and real estate and rental and leasing, the office said. In manufacturing, there were 90,400 vacant positions in April, up 7.3 per cent from March and up 30.7 per cent from April 2021. In accommodation and food services, employers were actively seeking to fill 153,000 vacant positions in April, little changed from the previous month. Meanwhile in the healthcare and social assistance sector, the number of job vacancies decreased 15.1 per cent to 125,200 in April from its peak of 147,500 reached in March 2022, but was 21.3 per cent higher than in April 2021. There were 97,800 job vacancies in retail trade in April, down 7.1 per cent from March, but 27.9 per cent higher than in April 2021, Statistics Canada said. /IANS