Canadian Payroll Employment Up By 1.3 Million From A Year Ago

The number of employees receiving pay or benefits from their employer edged up by 12,900 (+0.1%) in July, bringing the total increase to nearly 1.3 million (+7.9%) since July 2021, according to Statistics Canada.

Gains in Alberta (+8,100; +0.4%) and British Columbia (+6,500; +0.3%) were partially offset by a decline in Newfoundland and Labrador (-4,300; -1.9%), while little change was reported in the remaining provinces, reported the federal agency.

“Payroll employment in the services-producing sector increased by 21,600 (+0.2%) in July, the second consecutive monthly increase. Gains were seen in 10 out of the 15 services-producing sectors, with professional, scientific and technical services (+7,400; +0.6%) and accommodation and food services (+6,500; +0.5%) reporting the largest increases. Health care and social assistance (-11,200; -0.5%) was the only services-producing sector to report a payroll employment decrease in July, while the remaining four sectors showed little change,” explained StatsCan.

“Payroll employment was little changed in the goods-producing sector in July. Gains in construction (+4,600; +0.4%) and mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (+900; +0.4%) were partially offset by a decline in forestry, logging and support services (-400; -1.1%) and little change in the remaining goods-producing sectors.”

In July, average weekly earnings were up 2.9% year over year, continuing their growth since June 2021. Earnings growth can reflect a number of factors, including changes in wages, changes in the composition of employment, and changes in hours worked, said the report.

“On a year-over-year basis, 12 of the 20 sectors reported gains in average weekly earnings in July. Utilities (+8.8% to $2,034), retail trade (+8.5% to $704), manufacturing (+8.4% to $1,280), and forestry, logging and support (+8.2% to $1,290) reported the largest gains in average weekly earnings, while outpacing the national Consumer Price Index (+7.6%) growth.

“Quebec (+5.9% to $1,119) and New Brunswick (+5.9% to $1,068) recorded the largest year-over-year gains in average weekly earnings in July, while Alberta (+1.1% to $1,247) recorded the smallest gain,” it said.

Statistics Canada also said that in July, employers in Canada were actively recruiting for just under one million (964,000) vacant positions, down 5.5% (-56,400) compared with June and down 7.0% (-72,700) compared with May. However, the number of job vacancies in July remained elevated and was 16.2% (+134,300) higher than during the same month in 2021.

The job vacancy rate, which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand (the sum of filled and vacant positions), was 5.4% in July, down by 0.4 percentage points from June and by 0.6 percentage points from its peak of 6.0% in April 2022, it added.