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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