Labour statistics consistent with the System of National Accounts

The Productivity Measures Program publishes today for the first time estimates of labour and hours worked covering the entire Canadian economy, by industry and by province and territory, for 1997 to 2001.

These new estimates are based on the integration of different labour market statistics sources in order to produce a database consistent with the concepts of the System of National Accounts (SNA) as well as with the input-output industrial coding, set up according to the new North American Industry Classification System. These data are also split between the business and non-business sectors, and the economy as a whole.

Data will be available soon in two new CANSIM tables. Table 383-0009 includes provincial and territorial data by industry at the M and S levels of aggregation (65 industries in total); this table is subdivided into job categories, namely employee jobs, self-employed jobs and total jobs. Table 383-0010 includes more detailed data by industry at the L level of aggregation (132 industries). However, data by job category are not available.

In the future, the publication of these estimates of employment and hours worked will be synchronised with the other SNA components, and the estimates will follow the same revision schedule. However, since this is a new product, we foresee the possibility of more important revisions in the upcoming years than the other SNA components.

Information on methods and data quality available in the Integrated Meta Data Base: survey number 1402.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Jean-Pierre Maynard (613-951-3654; maynard@statcan.gc.ca), Micro-economic Analysis Division.