Canada

Statistics Canada says the number of job vacancies rose in July.

The agency says there were 264,000 vacant jobs in the month, up 32,000 from July 2011.

There were 5.3 unemployed people for every vacant job in July, down from 6.0 in the same month a year earlier.

The agency says the decline in the ratio of unemployment to job vacancies was mainly a result of an increase in vacancies.

The national job vacancy rate was 1.8 per cent in the three-month period ending in July, up from 1.6 per cent a year earlier.

The agency cautions, though that this is a new data series and trends are not yet available.