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.
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