VANCOUVER — Economists say a flat labour market throughout much of 2011 and a mismatch of worker skills with available jobs are key factors behind British Columbia’s less-than-encouraging showing in a new job vacancy report by Statistics Canada.

The federal agency reported Tuesday that there were an average of 4.4 (112,400) unemployed people for every vacant position (25,600) in B.C. in the three months ending in September 2011.

Nationally, the ratio of unemployed people for every job vacancy in the period was 3.3, with the highest number of unemployed in educational services (a ratio of 10 people per vacancy) and the lowest in wholesale trade, and health care and social assistance (1.4 to one in each sector).

The report’s data are based on responses to two new questions in Statistics Canada’s monthly Business Payroll Survey, asking whether businesses had any vacant positions on the last working day of the month and, if so, how many.

via Unemployed in B.C. outnumber jobs more than 4 to 1: StatsCan.