The number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as “payroll employment” in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—decreased by 47,300 overall (-0.3 per cent) in June, reported Statistics Canada on Thursday.
The decline in June followed five consecutive monthly increases from January to May, with a cumulative gain of 147,600 (+0.8 per cent) over this period. On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment was up 110,400 (+0.6 per cent) in June, added StatsCan.
“Meanwhile, job vacancies in June were little changed at 554,000. On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down by 190,500 (-25.6 per cent) in June.
“In June, monthly payroll employment decreases were recorded in 11 out of 20 sectors, led by retail trade (-15,100; -0.8 per cent), manufacturing (-10,600; -0.7 per cent), construction (-7,700; -0.7 per cent) and administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (-6,600; -0.8 per cent). Mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction (+2,500; +1.2 per cent) was the lone sector to record a monthly increase in June. The remaining eight sectors were little changed.”
Photo by Artem Podrez
Payroll employment in retail trade decreased by 15,100 (-0.8 per cent) in June, contributing to an overall downward trend since February 2023,
“From February 2023 to June 2024, the net payroll employment loss in retail trade was 39,300 (-1.9 per cent),” it said.
“In June, seven of the nine subsectors in retail trade recorded decreases in payroll employment. The declines were led by sporting goods, hobby, musical instruments, book, and miscellaneous retailers (-3,500; -1.7 per cent), clothing, clothing accessories, shoes, jewelry, luggage and leather goods retailers (-3,400; -1.6 per cent) and general merchandise retailers (-2,200; -0.8 per cent). The remaining two subsectors were essentially unchanged.”
The federal agency said month over month, overall average weekly earnings ($1,253) were little changed in June, following a 0.7 per cent increase in May. On a year-over-year basis, average weekly earnings grew by 4.0 per cent in June, following a 4.1 per cent increase in May. In general, growth in average weekly earnings can reflect a range of factors, including changes in wages, composition of employment, hours worked and base-year effects, it added.
“In June, job vacancies were little changed at 554,000. On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down by 190,500 (-25.6 per cent) in June. The job vacancy rate—which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand—held steady in June at 3.1 per cent, and was 1.1 percentage points lower than in June 2023 (4.2 per cent),” explained Statistics Canada.
“There were 2.6 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in June 2024, up from 2.5 in the previous month, largely due to an increase in the number of unemployed persons. This was the fifth consecutive monthly increase in the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio. This ratio has seen an upward trend since its lowest level of 1.0 in July 2022, indicating cooling in the labour market over the period.”
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. He was also named by RETHINK to its global list of Top Retail Experts 2024.
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