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Public sector employment

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The Daily


Friday, February 23, 2007
Fourth quarter 2006 (preliminary)

There were approximately 3,075,000 employees in the public sector during the fourth quarter of 2006, up 1.5% or 44,000 from the last three months of 2005.

The public sector includes both government (general government, educational institutions, and health and social service institutions) and government business enterprises.

Government employment has registered year-over-year increases on a quarterly basis since the fourth quarter of 1999.

The largest contributor to the relative increase in government employment was the educational institutions, where employment rose 2.6% over the fourth quarter in 2005. Employment in health and social service institutions increased 1.2% to 773,000.

General government employment rose 11,000 to 1,113,000, up 1.0%. All three levels of government contributed to this increase.

Employment within government business enterprises remained unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2005.

On an annual basis, public sector employment increased for the seventh consecutive year in 2006. This continues the upward trend that began after many years of decline throughout the 1990s.

On average, there were nearly 3,039,000 employees in the public sector in 2006, just below the peak of 3,063,000 set in 1992.

Public sector employment1
  Third quarter 2005 Fourth quarter 2005 Third quarter 2006 Fourth quarter 2006
  thousands
Public sector 2,886 3,031 2,932 3,075
Government 2,621 2,771 2,667 2,815
General government 1,123 1,102 1,150 1,113
Federal 370 372 386 380
Provincial and territorial 357 344 359 346
Local 395 385 405 387
Educational institutions 729 906 740 930
Universities and colleges2 282 329 289 335
School boards 447 577 451 594
Health and social service institutions 769 764 776 773
Government business enterprises 266 260 265 260
1.Numbers may not add up due to rounding.
2.Includes vocational and trade institutions.


Note: The public sector includes all economic entities controlled by government. It is comprised of four major components, as follows: federal government (ministries, departments, agencies and non-autonomous funds, and autonomous funds and organizations); provincial and territorial government (ministries, departments, agencies and non-autonomous funds, autonomous funds and organizations, universities and colleges, and health and social service institutions); local government (municipalities and non-autonomous funds, autonomous funds and organizations, and school boards); and government business enterprises (at the federal, provincial/territorial and local levels).

For a more detailed description of how public sector employment is defined and reconciled with other information sources, please refer to the document entitled Reconciliation of Public Sector Employment Estimates from Multiple Information Sources at the following link: 1713.

Available on CANSIM: tables 183-0002 and 183-0004.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 1713.

Data tables on public sector employment are also available online from the National economic accounts module of our website.

Estimates of public sector employment and aggregate public sector wages and salaries for the fourth quarter of 2006 are now available. The data for the first three quarters of 2006 may have been revised.

For general information or to order data, contact Jo-Anne Thibault (613-951-0767; jo-anne.thibault@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Peter Elliott (613-951-4551; peter.elliott@statcan.gc.ca), Public Institutions Division.