Statistics Canada says there was an average of 248,000 job vacancies in the country in three-month period ended in March, up 19,000 from the same period in 2011.

However, it says there were just 5.8 unemployed people for every vacancy, down from 6.5 in March 2011.

The agency says the decline in the ratio of unemployment to job vacancies was a result of both the increase in vacancies and a decline in the number of unemployed people.

There were 16 people for every vacancy in Newfoundland and Labrador in March, 13.6 in New Brunswick and 10.2 in Nova Scotia, little changed from the previous year.

The ratios in Ontario and Quebec were also little changed at 7.6 and 7.2 respectively, while Alberta had the lowest ratio, with 1.8 people out of work for every job vacancy.

The construction sector had the biggest decline in the unemployment-to-job vacancies ratio, with 8.3 unemployed people for every vacant job in the quarter ended in March, down from 14.4 in the same period a year earlier.