Canadian Payroll Employment and Vacancy Data for September

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—declined 0.3%, or 57,400 positions, in September, following little change in August. Year-over-year, payroll employment was up 0.5%, or 94,900 jobs, in September.

In September, monthly payroll employment declines were recorded in 9 sectors, led by retail trade, down 0.7%, or 13,200; accommodation and food services, down 0.7%, or 9,100; other services (excluding public administration), down 1.3%, or 7,600; professional, scientific, and technical services, down 0.5%, or 5,700; and construction, down 0.5%, or 5,600. The remaining 11 sectors were little changed.

Vacancies edged up to 528,200 in September, following little change in the previous month and three consecutive monthly declines from May to July. Year-over-year, job vacancies were down 18.1%, or 116,400, while total labor demand—which corresponds to the sum of filled and unfilled positions—was up 0.2%.

The job vacancy rate—which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labor demand—was 3.0% in September, up 0.1 percentage points from August, when it was reported as 2.9%, following six consecutive months of decline.

According to the latest Labor Force Survey, there were 2.7 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in September, down from 2.8 in August. This reflects a decrease in the number of unemployed people, which is down 30,800 from August—the first decrease in the unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio after six consecutive monthly increases.