The monthly report from Statistics Canada on payroll employment, salaries, hours, and job openings is now available for the month of May 2022. For the first time since May 2021, the number of employees in Canada who receive income or benefits from their employer has decreased, claims the report.
According to the poll, 26,000 jobs were no longer available as of last May, according to information from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls, and Hours. Manitoba and Ontario reported 2,500 and 30,000 open positions, respectively, and these states had the largest drops. Only one province, British Columbia, recorded a rise in payroll workers.
Most sectors experienced a decline in payroll employees
The sector that provides services experienced some of the biggest declines, reporting a loss of nearly 17,000 payroll positions in industries like education, healthcare, and social support.
Additionally, there was a large decline in construction jobs across all related businesses. May was the first decline in employment since July 2021 with almost 17,500 jobs eliminated. Nearly two-thirds of the reduction in employment in the construction industry can be attributed to the majority of jobs being lost in Ontario. Strikes across the province, which significantly slowed down a number of projects, are largely to blame for this loss.
The employment rate in the retail sector is still higher than in 2021
In the entire country, Ontario was also claimed to have seen the greatest loss of retail sector jobs. The number of payroll workers in the retail trade profession has fallen for the second consecutive month. The total rate of employment in retail trade is currently six percent greater than it was in May 2021. British Columbia, Quebec, and New Brunswick all had increased retail employment, in contrast to Ontario, Newfoundland, and Labrador.
Professional, scientific, and technology services were the only sector to expand in each province, adding over 10,000 jobs, especially in high-tech industries like computer systems design and related services.
Weekly earnings on average have increased by 2.5%
The retail trade sector saw the largest gain in weekly wages for May despite the loss of jobs, with a 9.3 percent increase over the same period in 2021. Wages for technical, scientific, and professional services are up 8.1%. In contrast, the arts, entertainment, and recreation businesses suffered the largest drop in weekly average wages, falling by 9.7 percent.
In comparison to April’s data, the average weekly wage for workers increased by 2.5%. This is probably due to rising pay or modifications to the working environment. The survey discovered that the higher average is not the result of more hours worked, which held steady at 1.5 percent over pre-COVID levels in May.
This information demonstrates the persistence of the general pattern of growth across time. With a gain of 7.4 percent in May compared to May 2021, New Brunswick experienced the most growth. Newfoundland and Labrador, with a 5.9 percent share, came next closely behind. The average wage increased in seven additional provinces.
The number of open positions in the healthcare industry is rising
A record-low 5.1 percent of Canadians were unemployed in May. (It dropped further to 4.9 percent in June). According to the poll, there are currently 143,000 unfilled posts (6.1%) in the health care and social services industries. The vacancy rate in April was 5.4 percent, which was 20 percent more than it was in May 2021. This represents a significant improvement.
With 161,000 unfilled positions, the accommodation and food services industry was the primary contributor to the two provinces’ over 10% employment vacancy rates in May. For the previous thirteen months running, there have been the most openings in the hospitality and food services industries.
High job openings and low unemployment
In Canada, there are more than one million open vacancies. This is in line with April figures, however, there are already over 300,000 more available positions than in May 2021. The Labor Force Survey’s forecast of the low unemployment rate and high job vacancy rate for May 2022 indicates that there is a growing labor shortage in a number of industries and that Canada will need more immigrants as more of its workforce retires. By 2022, Canada hopes to have admitted more than 430,000 permanent residents, the highest number ever. By 2024, the goal will have risen to over 450,000.
