Payroll employment up in January for fifth straight month

Payroll employment increased in January resulting in an upward trend for the fifth straight month, StatsCan data indicate.

The number of payroll employees rose 0.4% in the first month of the year (+71,100 employees), following a 0.3% increase in December.

“Overall payroll employment has generally trended upwards over the previous five months, resulting in cumulative gains of 275,400 (+1.6%),” StatsCan said.

Retail trade led the way, with payroll employment increasing by 1.1% to 22,700 — the first monthly increase for the sector since last September, StatsCan said.

Payroll employment in transportation and warehousing increased for the eighth consecutive month in January (+1.6%), with total gains in the sector increasing by 4.6% since last June to reach nearly 40,000 employees, StatsCan said.

Average weekly earnings rose 2.9% in the month, reaching $1,185. Growth in January was higher than in December (+2.6%) but lower than in November (+4.0%), StatsCan said. Growth in average weekly earnings can reflect a range of factors, it said, including changes in wages, composition of employment and hours worked.

In the goods-producing sector, average weekly wages increased by 5.8% in the month, with “robust gains” in utilities (+7.8% to $2,058), construction (+6.4% to $1,497) and forestry and logging (+6.2% to $1,348), StatsCan said.

In comparison, wages in the services-producing sector grew at a slower pace.

“Stronger gains in real estate and rental and leasing (+8.9% to $1,293) and finance and insurance (+8.8% to $1,634) were tempered by slower growth in public administration (+1.4% to $1,512) and a decline in retail trade (-1.7% to $682),” StatsCan said.

It also noted that job vacancies increased by 3.4% in the month (883,200), after a general downward trend from June to December of last year. In January, vacancies in transportation and warehousing were greatest (+14,500), followed by health care and social assistance (+12,400).

However, the job vacancy rate was flat compared to the previous month. This measure, which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand (the sum of filled and vacant positions), was 4.9% — little changed from December.

There was an average of 1.2 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in January, which is virtually unchanged since August 2022, StatsCan said.

Staff

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