Canadian payroll employment rises, average weekly earnings increase

Investing.com -- According to a report released today by Statistics Canada, payroll employment in the country witnessed an increase of 26,800 (+0.1%) in January 2025. This follows a growth of 66,400 (+0.4%) in December 2024. On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment was up by 198,900 (+1.1%) in January 2025.

The monthly increase in payroll employment for January was observed in six out of 20 sectors. These include educational services (+26,200; +1.8%), retail trade (+9,800; +0.5%), and health care and social assistance (+7,300; +0.3%). However, the construction sector saw a decrease in payroll employment by 8,000 (-0.7%), along with accommodation and food services (-3,400; -0.3%) and information and cultural industries (-2,700; -0.8%).

In terms of job vacancies, there was little change in January. On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down by 136,700 (-20.6%) in January.

The report also highlighted that average weekly earnings were up 5.5% to $1,294 in January on a year-over-year basis, continuing the growth of 5.9% in December 2024. However, average weekly earnings saw little change from December 2024 to January 2025.

Job vacancies in January were recorded at 526,200, showing little change from December. On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down by 136,700 (-20.6%) in January. The job vacancy rate was 2.9% in January, down 0.1 percentage points from December (3.0%).

The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio in January 2025 was 2.8, unchanged from December, but up from 1.9 in January 2024. This reflects a decrease in vacancies (-135,200; -20.5%, excluding territories), and an increase in the number of unemployed persons (+250,500; +20.2%, according to the Labour Force Survey).

The report also noted that job vacancies decreased in four sectors in January: transportation and warehousing (-5,800; -18.9%), finance and insurance (-5,100; -27.0%), educational services (-2,800; -14.8%) and utilities (-700; -33.3%). Meanwhile, job vacancies in accommodation and food services edged up (+4,600; +7.1%) to 69,000.

Job vacancies in Alberta fell by 8,600 (-11.9%) to 63,400 in January, more than offsetting the increase recorded in December 2024 (+5,600; +8.5%). On a year-over-year basis, the job vacancy rate was down in seven provinces in January, with the largest decreases in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and British Columbia.