Canadian Employment Posts Modest Gain in July

On Thursday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as “payroll employment” in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls, and Hours—increased 0.2%, or by 32,800 positions, in July. This follows a decline of 0.1%, or 22,900 positions, in June, and five consecutive monthly increases from January to May. Year-over-year, payroll employment was up 0.9%, or 157,700 positions.

Job vacancies declined by 4.1%, or 22,400 positions, marking the third consecutive monthly decline. The number of job vacancies was down 47.5% from the peak in May 2022.

In July, monthly payroll employment increases were recorded in 5 out of 20 sectors, led by health care and social assistance (up 0.7%, or 17,600), followed by public administration (up 0.6%, or 8,000) and retail trade (up 0.1%, or 2,300). These gains were partially offset by declines in 5 other sectors, led by manufacturing (down 0.4%, or 6,200), followed by construction (down 0.2%, or 2,400) and administrative and support, waste management, and remediation services (down 0.3%, or 2,400). The remaining 10 sectors were little changed.

There were 2.7 unemployed Canadians for every job vacancy in July, up from 2.6 in June. The increase in the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio reflected the decrease in job vacancies—down 4.0%, or 22,000 positions. The number of unemployed people in the Labor Force Survey (LFS)—a monthly household survey of the working-age population—was virtually unchanged from the previous month. The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio excludes the territories for consistency with the available LFS data.