Payroll employment, earnings and hours, November 2015
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Released: 2016-01-28
$950.71
November 2015
1.4% 
(12-month change)
Average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $951 in November, little changed from $953 the previous month. Compared with 12 months earlier, average weekly earnings increased by 1.4%.
Chart 1
Year-over-year change in average weekly earnings and average weekly hours
The change in weekly earnings reflects a number of factors, including wage growth, changes in the composition of employment by industry, occupation, and level of job experience, as well as average hours worked per week.
Non-farm payroll employees worked an average of 32.9 hours per week in November, little changed from the previous month and unchanged compared with the same month a year earlier.
Average weekly earnings by sector
In the 12 months to November, average weekly earnings increased in 5 of the 10 largest industrial sectors, led by administrative and support services. Over the same period, earnings were little changed in wholesale trade, accommodation and food services, construction, retail trade as well as educational services.
Chart 2
Year-over-year change in average weekly earnings in the 10 largest sectors, November 2015
Average weekly earnings in administrative and support services rose 5.2% to $792. Growth was spread across the sector, led by notable earnings gains in employment services. Overall sector wage growth was tempered by a year-over-year decline for investigation and security services.
Compared with November 2014, weekly earnings in manufacturing increased 2.5% to $1,079. The largest gains were in the manufacturing of plastics and rubber products, wood products and chemicals.
In the 12 months to November, average weekly earnings grew 2.3% to $1,232 in public administration. Earnings growth was led by local, municipal and regional public administration.
Earnings in professional, scientific and technical services increased 2.2% to $1,339 in the 12 months to November. Gains were reported in most industries, led by advertising, public relations and related services.
Average weekly earnings in health care and social assistance increased 1.3% to $870, led by gains in hospitals and ambulatory health care services.
Among the smaller industrial sectors, earnings in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector fell 5.6% to $1,967.
Average weekly earnings by province
In the 12 months to November, average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees increased in eight provinces, with the highest growth in Prince Edward Island. Over the same period, earnings declined in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Chart 3
Year-over-year growth in average weekly earnings by province, November 2015
Compared with November 2014, average weekly earnings in Prince Edward Island rose 3.2% to $805. Earnings increased across the majority of sectors, led by gains in professional, scientific and technical services as well as construction.
In New Brunswick, earnings increased 2.8% to $863 from November 2014. Earnings growth was led by administration and support services, construction as well as health care and social assistance.
In the 12 months to November, average weekly earnings in Ontario increased 2.6% to $965. Gains were widespread, with the highest growth in information and cultural industries; construction; and professional, scientific and technical services.
Compared with a year earlier, earnings in Saskatchewan decreased 1.2% to $980, with notable declines in health care and social assistance as well as in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas. However, earnings increased in the majority of other sectors.
In Alberta, earnings declined 2.4% to $1,130 in the 12 months to November, the fifth consecutive year-over-year decrease. Declines were spread across many sectors, led by construction; accommodation and food services; as well as real estate and rental and leasing.
Non-farm payroll employment by sector
The number of non-farm payroll jobs decreased by 28,100 in November, following an increase of 43,300 in October. The declines were spread across most sectors, led by construction and wholesale trade. At the same time, the largest gains in payroll employment were in educational services as well as finance and insurance.
Compared with 12 months earlier, the number of non-farm payroll employees increased by 137,600 or 0.9%. The number of payroll jobs increased the most in health care and social assistance (+44,500 or +2.5%), followed by accommodation and food services (+32,600 or +2.7%). At the same time, employment declined markedly in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (-33,200 or -14.2%), mainly in support activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction (-27,000 or -25.7%). Employment also decreased notably in construction (-21,600 or -2.2%).
Note to readers
With the March 31 release of January 2016 data, the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) will be releasing historically revised estimates. These estimates will include seasonally adjusted data that have been revised based on the latest seasonal factors. Historical revisions will also be made to a number of industries by province and territory, going back to 2001.
SEPH is produced by a combination of a census of approximately one million payroll deductions provided by the Canada Revenue Agency, as well as the Business Payrolls Survey, which collects data from a sample of 15,000 establishments. The key objective of SEPH is to provide a monthly portrait of the level of earnings, and the number of jobs and hours worked by detailed industry at the national, provincial and territorial level.
Estimates of average weekly earnings and hours worked are based on a sample and are therefore subject to sampling variability. This analysis focuses on differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 68% confidence level. Payroll employment estimates are based on a census of administrative data and are not subject to sampling variability.
Statistics Canada also produces employment estimates from its Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS is a monthly household survey, the main objective of which is to divide the working-age population into three mutually exclusive groups: the employed (including the self-employed), unemployed and not in the labour force. This survey is the official source for the unemployment rate and collects data on the socio-demographic characteristics of all those in the labour market.
As a result of conceptual and methodological differences, estimates of changes from SEPH and LFS do differ from time to time. However, the trends in the data are quite similar.
Unless otherwise stated, this release presents seasonally adjusted data, which facilitate comparisons by removing the effects of seasonal variations. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
Non-farm payroll employment data are for all hourly and salaried employees, as well as the "other employees" category, which includes piece-rate and commission-only employees.
Average weekly hours data are for hourly and salaried employees only and exclude businesses that could not be classified to a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code.
All earnings data include overtime pay and exclude businesses that could not be classified to a NAICS code. Earnings data are based on gross taxable payroll before source deductions. Average weekly earnings are derived by dividing total weekly earnings by the number of employees.
With each release, data for the current reference month are subject to revision. Data have been revised for the previous month. Users are encouraged to request and use the most up-to-date data for each month.
Real-time CANSIM tables
CANSIM tables 281-8023, 281-8026, 281-8047 and 281-8063 will be updated on February 11. For more information, consult the document Real-time CANSIM tables.
Next release
Data on payroll employment, earnings and hours for December 2015 will be released on February 25, 2016.
Products
A summary table is available from the Browse by key resource module of our website. Under Summary tables, choose Subject then Labour.
Job Vacancy Statistics (5202) from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours for October are now available in CANSIM.
More information about the concepts and use of the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours is available online in the Guide to the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (72-203-G), from the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications.
Contact information
For more information, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca).
To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Jeremy Weeks (613-951-1369; jeremy.weeks@canada.ca), Labour Statistics Division.
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