Canadian employers reported 328,000 job vacancies in the first quarter, Statistics Canada reported today. The number of job vacancies fell by 72,000, down 17.9%, from the first quarter of 2015.

The job vacancy rate — a measure of job openings compared with total employment — declined 0.5 percentage points year over year to 2.1%.

Full-time work accounted 67.8% of job vacancies in Canada.

The number of job vacancies fell in seven of the 10 broad occupational groups compared with the first quarter of 2015. The largest decrease was in sales and service occupations, down 35,000, or 23.6%. Despite the decline, this group reported the highest number of job vacancies in the first quarter at 115,000, or 34.9% of all job vacancies. Trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations had the second-largest number of job vacancies, at 42,000, or 12.8% of all vacancies.

The average offered hourly wage for all job vacancies was C$19.95 in the first quarter.