Payroll employment, earnings and hours

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Total non-farm payroll employment fell by 60,700 in March, down 0.4% from the previous month, as job losses across industries remained widespread.

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 March, the largest decline was in administrative and support services, which fell by 19,500 or 2.6%, driven primarily by declines in employment services and business support services. Since October 2008, payroll employment in administrative and support services has fallen by 6.3%.

Manufacturing continued to feel the effects of the economic downturn with a decline of 18,700 in March, driven by losses in fabricated metal; wood product; primary metal; and motor vehicle parts manufacturing. While manufacturing accounts for 10% of payroll employment, 37% of overall job losses since October 2008 have come from this industry.

In March, declines in payroll employment also occurred in traveller accommodation and full-service restaurants. The retail trade sector experienced job losses as well, including clothing stores, sporting goods, hobby and musical instrument stores, and grocery stores.

Despite widespread declines, some industries experienced job growth in March. Those with the largest gains included educational services, driven by an increase in universities, and health care and social assistance, with the biggest gain in nursing care facilities.

In March this year, payroll employment declined for three consecutive months in 103 out of 305 of the industry groups covered in the survey (or 34%). In contrast, in March 2008, payroll employment fell for three consecutive months in 44 industry groups, or 14%.

In March 2009, average weekly earnings, including overtime, of payroll employees was $824.98, up 2.4% from March 2008.

Recent trends in construction

Since peaking in October, total payroll employment has fallen by 325,000 or 2.2%. During that time, two industries experienced large declines in the size of their payroll employment — manufacturing and construction. The February 2009 release of the SEPH focused on payroll employment and wages within manufacturing. In this release, the emphasis is on recent trends in construction.

While payroll employment in manufacturing has been steadily declining since it last peaked earlier this decade, the number of construction employees only began to fall after October 2008.

Payroll employment in construction declined 7,600 in March. Since October 2008, the number of construction employees has declined 6.9%, down 58,100. This brought the number of employees in this industry to 789,600 in March, its lowest level since July 2007.

Almost all parts of the construction industry have shown declines since October 2008. The largest losses were in general residential construction (-12,100 or -9.5%); foundation, structure and building exterior contractors (-10,900 or -10.0%); building equipment contractors (-10,300 or -4.6%); and other specialty trade contractors (-8,000 or -9.4%).

Other industries were also affected by weakness in construction; for example, the number of employees in architectural and engineering services has decreased by 9,500 (-5.1%) since October 2008. Also down over this period were lumber, millwork, hardware and other building supplies wholesaler-distributors (-4,500 or -7.6%); household and institutional furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturing (-3,500 or -7.2%); home furnishings stores (-3,400 or -11.2%); offices of real estate agents and brokers (-3,100 or -12.2%); and building materials and supplies dealers (-2,900 or -2.3%).

Along with payroll employment, average weekly earnings in the construction sector have declined, with overall payroll earnings down 0.9% since October 2008. Average weekly earnings in foundation, structure and building exterior contractors, as well as general residential construction have fallen the most rapidly, at 9.2% and 7.1% respectively.

Payroll employment declines across most provinces

While seasonally adjusted detailed industry payroll employment 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.

British Columbia and Ontario had the biggest payroll job losses between March 2008 and March 2009.

Payroll employment in British Columbia contracted 2.4% or 46,000 in March compared with 12 months earlier. Declines were widespread, with notable job losses in sawmills and wood preservation; electronic and precision equipment repairs; logging and general residential construction.

In Ontario, the number of jobs fell by 113,700 from a year earlier, a decline of 2.0%, with the biggest losses in employment services (-24,200); motor vehicle parts manufacturing (-17,500); other local, municipal and regional public administration (-16,900) and business support services (-10,500).

Saskatchewan's payroll employment grew by 6,300 between March 2008 and March 2009. The biggest gains were in wired telecommunication carriers; other local, municipal and regional public administration as well as warehousing and storage.

The number of employees in Newfoundland and Labrador was 5,700 higher in March 2009 compared with a year earlier. This increase was largely driven by gains in elementary and secondary schools; other provincial and territorial public administration; support activities for mining, oil and gas extraction; and general medical and surgical hospitals.

Average weekly earnings

In March 2009, average weekly earnings, including overtime, of payroll employees in Canada was $824.98, up 2.4% from March 2008.

Compared with a year ago, average weekly earnings in March 2009 in Canada's largest industrial sectors grew by 3.6% in retail trade, 2.4% in health care and social assistance, 2.4% in accommodation and food services and 2.2% in public administration. Average weekly earnings in educational services were unchanged from March 2008.

Average weekly earnings continued to fall in manufacturing, down 2.8% from a year ago.

Among the provinces, the biggest increase in average weekly earnings was in Newfoundland and Labrador, up 6.4% from March 2008. Alberta and Prince Edward Island followed with growth of 5.6% each over the same period.

Comparing SEPH and LFS

Data on employment, wages and hours worked are produced by two major Statistics Canada monthly surveys: LFS and SEPH. Survey data differ for conceptual and 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 data from the survey do differ, the trends in the data are quite similar.

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-X, free).

Data on payroll employment, earnings and hours for April will be released on June 25.

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