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Payroll employment, earnings and hours

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February 2009 (preliminary) (Previous release)

Non-farm payroll employment fell by 79,600 in February, down 0.5% from a month earlier. Since it peaked in October 2008, the number of payroll employees has declined by 2.0% or 296,000.

Total payroll employment

These data come from the recently redesigned Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH). SEPH is a business survey that provides a detailed portrait of employees from an industry perspective, complementing information on total employment from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey from a household perspective.

In February, the largest decline was in manufacturing, where widespread declines pushed payroll employment down by 19,300. Within manufacturing, the largest drops were in transportation equipment; fabricated metal; machinery; food manufacturing; and wood products.

Although manufacturing employment has been in steady decline since it last peaked earlier this decade, the pace of job losses has accelerated in recent months. Since October 2008, payroll employment in manufacturing has fallen by 99,700 or 6.1%, more than three times the rate of decline of total payroll employment. Nearly one-quarter of the manufacturing decline since October has come directly from the auto sector.

In February, payroll employment in construction dropped by 11,100, mainly in building equipment contractors, other specialty trade contractors and general residential construction. As well, a decline in architectural and engineering services (-3,200) came as construction activity in Canada slowed.

There were also declines in a number of other industries, including non-Internet publishing (-4,800), credit intermediaries and related activities (-4,300) and truck transportation (-4,200).

Despite the overall decline in February, there was modest job growth in health and education, specifically ambulatory health care services, specialty hospitals, elementary and secondary schools, and community colleges and Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEPs).

Note to readers

Unless otherwise specified, data in this release refer to payroll employment and earnings data obtained from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH).

This release launches the expansion of the monthly analysis of the SEPH data in The Daily. Each month, Statistics Canada will be providing enhanced analysis of the current labour market situation, using SEPH and other sources. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) will provide the first picture of overall labour market conditions, with unemployment and total employment and who is affected by changes in the labour market. Later in the month, Statistics Canada will provide additional detail by industry through the SEPH Daily release, and regional detail through the Employment Insurance statistics.

With the release of January 2009 SEPH data on March 31, 2009, an improved estimation method for earnings and hours data was introduced and estimates back to 2001 were revised to ensure continuity in data series.

February payroll employment fell in most provinces, particularly Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

Average weekly earnings, including overtime, of payroll employees in February was $820.95, up 1.8% from February 2008. This was slower than January's year-over-year increase of 2.4%.

Job losses in manufacturing widespread, led by motor vehicles

Since October 2008, the number of employees working in motor vehicle parts manufacturing has fallen by 13,300, while motor vehicle and motor vehicle body manufacturing has dropped by 10,200.

As of February 2009, there were 111,500 employees working in motor vehicle assembly and parts, down 65,000 or 37% from its peak in 2001.

Motor vehicle manufacturing payroll employment

Data from the LFS show large increases in recent months in the unemployment rates in all major communities of Southwestern Ontario. At 13.7% in March 2009, Windsor has the highest unemployment rate of all large communities in Canada.

The job losses in motor vehicle manufacturing coincided with declines in some related industries. Payroll employment in the automotive repair and maintenance industry has fallen by 5,000 since October. The number of employees also declined at automobile dealers (-4,200) and in new motor vehicle and parts wholesaler-distributors (-2,300).

Other manufacturing industries with notable job losses included fabricated metal products; wood products; machinery; plastics and rubber products; furniture and related products; primary metals; and printing and related support activities manufacturing.

Provincial changes in payroll employment

In February, the number of jobs fell by 30,300 or 0.9% in Quebec, the largest percent change in payroll employment among all the provinces. Ontario and Alberta each experienced a decline of 0.6%, while British Columbia decreased by 0.4%.

While seasonally adjusted detailed industry job data are available at the national level, they are not available for the provinces and territories. For trends in payroll employment in various detailed sectors among the provinces and territories, analysis is done on a year-over-year basis.

While Quebec experienced the largest monthly decline, both Ontario and British Columbia had the biggest drop between February 2008 and February 2009.

Over this one-year period, overall non-farm payroll employment in Ontario declined by 1.7% or 97,800. The biggest decline over this one-year period occurred in the province's manufacturing industries, where payroll employment fell 94,000 or 12.1%.

In British Columbia, payroll employment was down 28,400 or 1.5% in February 2009 compared with a year earlier. Much of this decline was linked to wood-related industries such as wood product manufacturing (-8,300); forestry, logging and support (-3,900); and paper manufacturing (-3,000).

Payroll employment in British Columbia's construction industry was down over the year by 8,100 jobs, mainly among specialty trade contractors and, to a lesser extent, general residential building construction.

Average weekly earnings

Average weekly earnings, including overtime, of payroll employees was $820.95 in February, up 1.8% from February 2008.

In the largest industrial sectors, from February 2008 to February 2009, average weekly earnings were up by 5.6% in retail trade, 2.0% in health care and social assistance, 1.5% in accommodation and food services, 0.7% in educational services and 0.6% in public administration.

During the same period, earnings declined by 4.3% for employees in manufacturing as a whole.

Earnings declined for employees in most of the biggest manufacturing industries, that is, food; transportation equipment; fabricated metal products; machinery; and wood products.

Provincially, the strongest year-over-year earnings growth among the provinces occurred in Alberta (+5.4%), Newfoundland and Labrador (+4.5%) and Saskatchewan (+3.5%).

Comparing SEPH and LFS

Data on employment, wages and hours worked are produced by two major Statistics Canada monthly surveys: LFS and SEPH. Survey estimates differ for conceptual reasons and for methodological reasons. The information source is the key distinction between the two surveys: SEPH provides information related to occupied jobs based on a census of administrative data from businesses whereas LFS provides information on the employment characteristics of individuals based on a survey of households. While the estimates from the survey do differ, the trends in the data are quite similar.

 Non-farm payroll employment of the Survey of Employment Payrolls and Hours, and total employment of the Labour Force Survey

Since each of these surveys addresses different needs, the choice of data depends on the users' goals. Other conceptual and methodological differences between the two surveys include: degree of coverage of industries and the self employed, treatment of multiple-job holders, and the survey reference period. The effects of these differences vary by industry.

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 March will be released on May 28.

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 Jason Gilmore (613-951-7118) or Danielle Zietsma (613-951-4243), Labour Statistics Division.

Table 1

Number of employees
Industry Group (North American Industry Classification System) December 2008 February 2008 January 2009r February 2009p January to February 2009 February 2008 to February 2009 December 2008 to February 2009
  Seasonally adjusted
  thousands % change
Industrial aggregate 14,800.4 14,739.0 14,697.5 14,617.8 -0.5 -0.8 -1.2
Forestry, logging and support 44.7 50.3 42.0 40.8 -2.9 -18.9 -8.7
Mining and quarrying, and oil and gas extraction 203.5 198.1 197.4 196.3 -0.6 -0.9 -3.5
Utilities 122.7 119.2 122.2 121.3 -0.7 1.8 -1.1
Construction 817.7 818.0 803.5 792.4 -1.4 -3.1 -3.1
Manufacturing 1,599.6 1,715.2 1,565.8 1,546.5 -1.2 -9.8 -3.3
Wholesale trade 753.7 757.6 748.4 742.2 -0.8 -2.0 -1.5
Retail trade 1,884.0 1,867.6 1,884.2 1,882.1 -0.1 0.8 -0.1
Transportation and warehousing 696.7 675.6 692.7 691.8 -0.1 2.4 -0.7
Information and cultural industries 326.3 328.3 326.3 323.4 -0.9 -1.5 -0.9
Finance and insurance 666.4 642.6 664.0 663.0 -0.2 3.2 -0.5
Real estate and rental and leasing 246.8 250.8 244.7 242.6 -0.9 -3.3 -1.7
Professional, scientific and technical services 766.6 742.5 757.5 746.0 -1.5 0.5 -2.7
Management of companies and enterprises 121.3 128.5 120.1 122.1 1.7 -5.0 0.7
Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services 754.2 780.6 753.3 741.4 -1.6 -5.0 -1.7
Educational services 1,147.5 1,123.6 1,145.4 1,149.1 0.3 2.3 0.1
Health care and social assistance 1,567.2 1,509.9 1,558.0 1,562.6 0.3 3.5 -0.3
Arts, entertainment and recreation 242.1 240.9 245.2 245.1 0.0 1.7 1.2
Accommodation and food services 1,095.3 1,069.2 1,089.4 1,088.7 -0.1 1.8 -0.6
Other services (excluding public administration) 510.5 507.5 508.2 504.9 -0.6 -0.5 -1.1
Public administration 1,024.4 1,005.9 1,029.1 1,028.1 -0.1 2.2 0.4
Provinces and territories              
Newfoundland and Labrador 192.4 189.8 192.1 191.7 -0.2 1.0 -0.4
Prince Edward Island 61.5 61.3 61.4 61.1 -0.5 -0.3 -0.7
Nova Scotia 393.0 395.8 391.8 392.1 0.1 -0.9 -0.2
New Brunswick 311.0 311.7 310.1 310.5 0.1 -0.4 -0.2
Quebec 3,393.1 3,361.0 3,370.3 3,340.1 -0.9 -0.6 -1.6
Ontario 5,671.0 5,695.4 5,633.8 5,597.6 -0.6 -1.7 -1.3
Manitoba 562.8 560.0 560.2 557.7 -0.4 -0.4 -0.9
Saskatchewan 439.9 431.4 438.0 439.4 0.3 1.9 -0.1
Alberta 1,789.8 1,748.5 1,773.9 1,763.6 -0.6 0.9 -1.5
British Columbia 1,935.0 1,934.0 1,912.5 1,905.6 -0.4 -1.5 -1.5
Yukon 19.5 19.5 19.2 19.1 -0.5 -2.1 -2.1
Northwest Territories¹ 26.8 24.8 25.6 26.5 3.5 6.9 -1.1
Nunavut¹ 10.1 10.7 9.3 9.5 2.2 -11.2 -5.9
revised
preliminary
Data not seasonally adjusted.

Table 2

Average weekly earnings (including overtime) for all employees
Industry Group (North American Industry Classification System) February 2008 January 2009r February 2009p January to February 2009 February 2008 to February 2009
  Seasonally adjusted
  $ % change
Industrial aggregate 806.24 817.09 820.95 0.5 1.8
Forestry, logging and support 982.43 868.26 789.36 -9.1 -19.7
Mining and quarrying, and oil and gas extraction 1,508.02 1,590.16 1,603.85 0.9 6.4
Utilities 1,416.68 1,476.39 1,507.09 2.1 6.4
Construction 975.27 1,053.47 1,056.61 0.3 8.3
Manufacturing 961.82 922.05 920.32 -0.2 -4.3
Wholesale trade 956.23 977.46 1,026.05 5.0 7.3
Retail trade 459.84 486.84 485.52 -0.3 5.6
Transportation and warehousing 887.17 901.40 891.44 -1.1 0.5
Information and cultural industries 1,020.28 1,078.69 1,116.90 3.5 9.5
Finance and insurance 1,002.86 1,017.10 1,022.54 0.5 2.0
Real estate and rental and leasing 747.27 784.03 760.04 -3.1 1.7
Professional, scientific and technical services 1,096.66 1,125.97 1,151.06 2.2 5.0
Management of companies and enterprises 1,159.49 1,087.64 1,170.86 7.7 1.0
Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services 660.65 688.54 666.39 -3.2 0.9
Educational services 856.07 873.37 862.00 -1.3 0.7
Health care and social assistance 731.61 744.44 746.37 0.3 2.0
Arts, entertainment and recreation 506.52 508.52 498.54 -2.0 -1.6
Accommodation and food services 330.06 330.74 334.85 1.2 1.5
Other services (excluding public administration) 657.90 668.37 678.96 1.6 3.2
Public administration 1,041.45 1,031.15 1,047.28 1.6 0.6
Provinces and territories          
Newfoundland and Labrador 752.29 774.10 785.86 1.5 4.5
Prince Edward Island 658.61 676.57 674.74 -0.3 2.4
Nova Scotia 705.08 723.59 727.89 0.6 3.2
New Brunswick 720.19 736.77 736.16 -0.1 2.2
Quebec 736.37 742.03 752.77 1.4 2.2
Ontario 836.34 842.21 845.19 0.4 1.1
Manitoba 752.71 766.29 768.25 0.3 2.1
Saskatchewan 776.70 797.31 803.63 0.8 3.5
Alberta 924.01 947.96 973.61 2.7 5.4
British Columbia 790.82 793.41 786.99 -0.8 -0.5
Yukon 857.79 851.33 896.97 5.4 4.6
Northwest Territories¹ 1,056.85 1,156.62 1,143.15 -1.2 8.2
Nunavut¹ 916.72 815.35 885.95 8.7 -3.4
revised
preliminary
Data not seasonally adjusted.