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Payroll employment, earnings and hours

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January 2009 (preliminary) (Previous release)

The average weekly earnings of employees increased 1.1% from December to $823.71 in January.

Since January 2008, average weekly earnings have risen 3.2%.

Among Canada's largest industrial sectors, between January 2008 and January 2009, average weekly earnings increased by 6.1% in retail trade, 4.4% in health and social assistance, 3.5% in educational services, and 2.2% in accommodation and food services. Over the same period, earnings declined by 0.8% in manufacturing and 0.4% in public administration.

The strongest year-over-year earnings growth among the provinces was reported in Alberta (+7.9%) and Saskatchewan (+6.3%).

Payroll employment decreased by 117,000 (-0.8%) in January from the previous month, the largest drop since March 1991. Since the peak reached in October 2008, the number of employees has decreased by 230,500.

In January, employment fell in every province, with Alberta (-1.4%) and British Columbia (-1.3%) experiencing the largest percentage declines. Ontario recorded the largest drop in the number of employees (-42,200).

Declines in the number of employees were observed in most industries, with the largest decrease occurring in manufacturing (-25,400). Payroll employment in manufacturing has fallen by 105,300 over the last six months. Construction (-15,100), and professional, scientific, and technical services (-14,000) also experienced significant losses in payroll employment. Industries that recorded payroll employment growth in January included public administration (+4,800) and retail trade (+4,700).

Note: With this release, data from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours are being produced using a new estimation method. Many series are affected by this change, most notably average weekly earnings, average hourly earnings, and average weekly hours.

While estimates of the total number of employees are not affected by this change, some shifts in the breakdown by category of worker (hourly, salaried, and other employees) may occur in some series.

Previously released estimates back to 2001 have been revised to ensure continuity in data series. Data quality indicators are being incorporated into many of the time series.

When the quality of a specific monthly estimate is too unreliable for publication, an "F" will replace the actual estimate. In cases where the sample size is too small to produce reliable estimates, the series will no longer be available.

In line with the normal annual revision cycle, historical corrections to other series are also now available.

Available on CANSIM: tables 281-0023 to 281-0039 and 281-0041 to 281-0046.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2612.

Detailed industry data, data by size of enterprise based on employment, and other labour market indicators will be available soon in the monthly publication Employment, Earnings and Hours (72-002-XIB, free).

Data on payroll employment, earnings and hours for February will be released on April 29.

For more information, or to order data, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-866-873-8788; 613-951-4090; labour@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about revisions, concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Peter Lorenz (613-951-4167), Labour Statistics Division.

Table 1

Average weekly earnings (including overtime) for all employees
Industry group (North American Industry Classification System) January 2008 December 2008r January 2009p December 2008 to January 2009 January 2008 to January 2009
  Seasonally adjusted
  $ % change
Industrial aggregate 798.06 814.51 823.71 1.1 3.2
Forestry, logging and support 962.89 875.43 882.45 0.8 -8.4
Mining and quarrying, and oil and gas extraction 1,505.72 1,553.59 1,593.93 2.6 5.9
Utilities 1,409.01 1,439.20 1,482.40 3.0 5.2
Construction 968.05 1,044.83 1,056.79 1.1 9.2
Manufacturing 948.72 914.41 940.95 2.9 -0.8
Wholesale trade 942.28 978.77 970.79 -0.8 3.0
Retail trade 458.00 480.58 486.07 1.1 6.1
Transportation and warehousing 877.12 895.15 911.07 1.8 3.9
Information and cultural industries 998.03 1,058.56 1,070.73 1.1 7.3
Finance and insurance 1,003.57 997.07 1,045.14 4.8 4.1
Real estate and rental and leasing 752.66 808.16 789.94 -2.3 5.0
Professional, scientific and technical services 1,099.52 1,122.23 1,138.86 1.5 3.6
Management of companies and enterprises 1,138.78 1,062.10 1,104.28 4.0 -3.0
Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services 653.48 670.17 705.59 5.3 8.0
Educational services 846.75 867.64 876.00 1.0 3.5
Health care and social assistance 722.68 752.21 754.81 0.3 4.4
Arts, entertainment and recreation 512.34 510.75 511.28 0.1 -0.2
Accommodation and food services 323.96 330.28 330.95 0.2 2.2
Other services (excluding public administration) 658.57 666.85 682.49 2.3 3.6
Public administration 1,039.80 1,053.24 1,035.14 -1.7 -0.4
Provinces and territories          
Newfoundland and Labrador 742.64 779.44 772.88 -0.8 4.1
Prince Edward Island 650.43 668.39 677.87 1.4 4.2
Nova Scotia 702.29 725.06 731.21 0.8 4.1
New Brunswick 714.12 732.96 741.02 1.1 3.8
Quebec 750.36 748.54 749.98 0.2 -0.1
Ontario 827.68 836.62 851.40 1.8 2.9
Manitoba 733.10 762.85 765.96 0.4 4.5
Saskatchewan 754.88 793.86 802.43 1.1 6.3
Alberta 885.77 947.61 955.35 0.8 7.9
British Columbia 772.76 789.99 798.70 1.1 3.4
Yukon 845.90 855.12 863.09 0.9 2.0
Northwest Territories¹ 1,021.67 1,100.30 1,153.18 4.8 12.9
Nunavut¹ 907.32 876.96 815.36 -7.0 -10.1
revised
preliminary
Data not seasonally adjusted.

Table 2

Number of employees
Industry group (North American Industry Classification System) January 2008 December 2008r January 2009p December 2008 to January 2009 January 2008 to January 2009
  Seasonally adjusted
  thousands % change
Industrial aggregate 14,732.0 14,800.4 14,683.4 -0.8 -0.3
Forestry, logging and support 51.1 44.7 42.3 -5.4 -17.2
Mining and quarrying, and oil and gas extraction 198.1 203.5 199.7 -1.9 0.8
Utilities 120.5 122.7 123.2 0.4 2.2
Construction 813.7 817.7 802.6 -1.8 -1.4
Manufacturing 1,730.0 1,599.6 1,574.2 -1.6 -9.0
Wholesale trade 759.8 753.7 750.0 -0.5 -1.3
Retail trade 1,868.4 1,884.0 1,888.7 0.2 1.1
Transportation and warehousing 685.1 696.7 688.5 -1.2 0.5
Information and cultural industries 326.3 326.3 327.4 0.3 0.3
Finance and insurance 637.2 666.4 666.2 0.0 4.6
Real estate and rental and leasing 252.0 246.8 244.3 -1.0 -3.1
Professional, scientific and technical services 743.6 766.6 752.6 -1.8 1.2
Management of companies and enterprises 136.5 121.3 119.9 -1.2 -12.2
Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services 779.2 754.2 753.0 -0.2 -3.4
Educational services 1,122.1 1,147.5 1,136.7 -0.9 1.3
Health care and social assistance 1,506.4 1,567.2 1,556.5 -0.7 3.3
Arts, entertainment and recreation 242.2 242.1 245.1 1.2 1.2
Accommodation and food services 1,072.1 1,095.3 1,088.5 -0.6 1.5
Other services (excluding public administration) 508.4 510.5 507.7 -0.5 -0.1
Public administration 984.6 1,024.4 1,029.2 0.5 4.5
Provinces and territories          
Newfoundland and Labrador 189.5 192.4 191.9 -0.3 1.3
Prince Edward Island 61.5 61.5 61.5 0.0 0.0
Nova Scotia 395.6 393.0 391.7 -0.3 -1.0
New Brunswick 311.5 311.0 310.8 -0.1 -0.2
Quebec 3,365.3 3,393.1 3,370.0 -0.7 0.1
Ontario 5,689.5 5,671.0 5,628.8 -0.7 -1.1
Manitoba 556.0 562.8 561.4 -0.2 1.0
Saskatchewan 431.0 439.9 436.6 -0.8 1.3
Alberta 1,750.7 1,789.8 1,765.1 -1.4 0.8
British Columbia 1,929.4 1,935.0 1,909.0 -1.3 -1.1
Yukon 19.6 19.5 19.1 -2.1 -2.6
Northwest Territories¹ 23.9 26.8 25.5 -4.9 6.7
Nunavut¹ 10.4 10.1 9.3 -7.9 -10.6
revised
preliminary
Data not seasonally adjusted.