The number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer increased by 23,300 (+0.1 per cent) in May, excluding federal government public administration. Meanwhile, the number of job vacancies declined by 26,000 (-3.3 per cent) to 759,000 in May, continuing the steady downward trend observed over the past year, reported Statistics Canada on Thursday.
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“In May, payroll employment in the federal government public administration increased by 106,600 (+39.4 per cent), following a decline of 107,400 (-28.4 per cent) in April. The decline in April was largely associated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada strike action and was expected to be temporary. Including the monthly gain in this subsector, the overall increase in national payroll employment was 129,900 (+0.7 per cent) in May,” said the federal agency.
“In addition to the overall gain in public administration (+106,200; +9.1 per cent), seven sectors recorded monthly payroll employment increases, including health care and social assistance (+7,000; +0.3 per cent), accommodation and food services (+2,500; +0.2 per cent), arts, entertainment and recreation (+2,400; +0.8 per cent) and professional, scientific and technical services (+1,500; +0.1 per cent). These gains in May were partially mitigated by a decline in construction (-1,800; -0.2 per cent).
“Growth in overall payroll employment has moderated in recent months compared with the last four months of 2022 and early 2023. From September 2022 to January 2023, overall payroll employment generally trended upwards, with a cumulative gain of 279,700 (+1.6 per cent). In comparison, growth from January to May was 112,200 (+0.6 per cent).”
Compared with the peak of just over 1 million (1,003,200) unfilled positions reached in May 2022, job vacancies were down by 244,300 (-24.3 per cent) in May 2023, said StatsCan.
“Job vacancies decreased in six sectors in May, led by health care and social assistance (-12,500; -8.5 per cent) and accommodation and food services (-12,300; -11.1 per cent). Concurrently, job vacancies increased in three sectors, led by manufacturing (+3,700; +6.7 per cent) and finance and insurance (+3,000; +11.3 per cent). On a year-over-year basis, the health care and social assistance sector remained among the few sectors that did not record a significant decline in job vacancies,” it said.
“The job vacancy rate—which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand (the sum of filled and unfilled positions)—edged down by 0.1 percentage points to a two-year low of 4.3 per cent in May. On a year-over-year basis, the job vacancy rate was down by 1.5 percentage points, resulting from declines in vacancies (-244,300; -24.3 per cent) combined with gains in payroll employment (+410,900; +2.5 per cent).”
Mario Toneguzzi
Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list)
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