Payroll employment, earnings and hours, and job vacancies, February 2025

The number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as "payroll employment" in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—decreased by 49,000 (-0.3%) in February, following an increase of 14,400 (+0.1%) in January. On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment was up 124,300 (+0.7%) in February.

Chart 1: Payroll employment declines in February following an increase in January

Source: Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (2612), table 14-10-0220-01.

In February, monthly payroll employment declines were recorded in 9 of the 20 sectors, including educational services (-21,300; -1.4%), accommodation and food services (-13,600; -1.0%), retail trade (-10,600; -0.5%), manufacturing (-6,800; -0.4%) and public administration (-5,600; -0.4%). Health care and social assistance (+12,600; +0.5%) as well as administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (+3,700; +0.5%) were the only sectors to record increases in February. The remaining nine sectors were little changed.

Meanwhile, in February, there were 528,000 job vacancies in Canada, marking the sixth consecutive month of little change. On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down by 131,100 (-19.9%) in February.

Chart 2: Payroll employment in February decreases in nine sectors and increases in two

1. Payroll employment changes are not statistically significant.

Source: Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (2612), table 14-10-0220-01.

Payroll employment loss in educational services in February offsets the gain in January

Payroll employment in the educational services sector decreased by 21,300 (-1.4%) in February, offsetting the increase in January (+20,400; +1.4%). The sector has recorded little overall change in payroll employment since July 2024, following a net gain of 42,200 (+2.9%) from January to July 2024.

On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment in educational services was up 27,700 (+1.9%) in February 2025. Elementary and secondary schools (+31,400; +3.7%) recorded the largest increase over this period.

Payroll employment in accommodation and food services decreases in February

Payroll employment in accommodation and food services decreased by 13,600 (-1.0%) in February, bringing the cumulative decline since December 2024 to 19,200 (-1.5%). The decline over the two-month period was driven by full-service restaurants and limited-service eating places (-18,400; -1.8%).

February payroll employment loss in retail trade more than offsets the gain in January

Payroll employment in retail trade decreased by 10,600 (-0.5%) in February, more than offsetting the gain observed in January (+5,700; +0.3%). On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment in retail trade was down 28,500 (-1.4%) in February.

The month-over-month decline in February in payroll employment in the retail trade sector was led by health and personal care retailers (-2,200; -1.0%), warehouse clubs, supercentres and other general merchandise retailers (-2,100; -1.3%) and building material and supplies dealers (-1,600; -1.2%).

Payroll employment in manufacturing decreases in February

Payroll employment in the manufacturing sector decreased by 6,800 (-0.4%) in February. Despite the monthly decline, payroll employment in the sector has recorded little net variation in recent years. In February, payroll employment in the sector was down by 6,600 (-0.4%) compared with one year earlier and up by 8,400 (+0.5%) compared with January 2022.

Machinery manufacturing (-1,600; -1.1%) was the largest contributor to the overall decline in February 2025, followed by fabricated metal products manufacturing (-1,100; -0.7%) and chemical manufacturing (-1,000; -1.1%).

Payroll employment in automotive manufacturing industries (which include motor vehicle manufacturing, motor vehicle parts manufacturing and motor vehicle body and trailer manufacturing) edged down in February (-500; -0.4%) and was down 2,100 (-1.6%) compared with one year earlier. The year-over-year decline in automotive industries largely reflects the decline in motor vehicle parts manufacturing (-2,100; -2.9%).

Payroll employment continues to trend upwards in health care and social assistance in February

Payroll employment in health care and social assistance increased by 12,600 (+0.5%) in February, continuing the upward trend observed since September 2022, with a cumulative gain of 219,400 (+9.8%) over this period.

The gain in February 2025 was broad-based, with increases being recorded in nursing and residential care facilities (+5,100; +1.0%), ambulatory health care services (+3,600; +0.5%), hospitals (+2,100; +0.3%) and social assistance (+1,800; +0.4%).

Average weekly earnings increase in February on a year-over-year basis

On a year-over-year basis, average weekly earnings were up 5.4% to $1,298 in February, following a 5.6% increase in January. In general, growth in average weekly earnings can reflect a range of factors, including changes in wages, composition of employment, hours worked and base-year effects.

Month over month, average weekly earnings were little changed in February.

Average weekly hours in February (33.5 hours) were unchanged on a month-over-month and year-over-year basis.

Job vacancies little changed in February

In February, there were 528,000 job vacancies in Canada, marking the sixth consecutive month of little change. On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down by 131,100 (-19.9%).

The job vacancy rate—which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand—was 2.9% in February. This was unchanged from the previous month but down by 0.8 percentage points from February 2024 (3.7%).

There were 2.8 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in February 2025, up from 2.0 in February 2024. The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio has held steady since August 2024, at 2.8, except in November 2024 and January 2025, when the ratio was 2.9.

Chart 3: Job vacancies and job vacancy rate little changed in February

Note: Total labour demand is equal to the sum of payroll employment and job vacancies. Job Vacancy and Wage Survey data collection was suspended from April 2020 to September 2020. Therefore, data for these reference periods are not available. Data are seasonally adjusted.

Source: Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (5217), table 14-10-0406-01.

Job vacancies up in finance and insurance and down in management of companies and enterprises

In February, finance and insurance (+7,500 to 22,100) and management of companies and enterprises (-600 to 1,800) were the only sectors to record a significant change in the number of job vacancies.

The job vacancy rate in February was highest in accommodation and food services (4.5%), other services (except public administration) (4.2%) and health care and social assistance (4.1%). In contrast, it was lowest in utilities (1.0%), educational services (1.2%) and management of companies and enterprises (1.4%).

Year over year, vacancies were down in 14 of the 20 sectors in February. The largest declines were recorded in health care and social assistance (-24,700; -19.0%), accommodation and food services (-18,600; -23.3%) and construction (-18,500; -31.6%). No sector recorded a year-over-year increase in job vacancies.

Three sectors account for approximately two in five job vacancies

In February, health care and social assistance, accommodation and food services, and retail trade together accounted for over 4 in 10 job vacancies (41.6%) in Canada. Health care and social assistance contributed the most to job vacancies (19.9%), followed by accommodation and food services (11.6%) and retail trade (10.1%). Of these sectors, health care and social assistance is the only one that continues to have significantly more vacancies than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chart 4: Top six sectors with the most job vacancies in February

Note: Data are seasonally adjusted.

Source: Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (5217), table 14-10-0406-01.

Job vacancies in transportation and warehousing continue downward trend

In February, job vacancies for the transportation and warehousing sector edged down by 1,200 (-4.8%) to 23,300, following a decrease of 5,600 (-18.7%) in January. This was the lowest level of job vacancies in this sector since October 2017 (22,900). Vacancies in the sector have been on a downward trend since reaching a peak in July 2022.

In February 2025, the job vacancy rate in transportation and warehousing was 2.7%, which was little changed from January but down 1.6 percentage points from February 2024. This was the largest year-over-year decrease in the job vacancy rate across all sectors.

Job vacancies down in Quebec and up in Ontario and Manitoba

The number of job vacancies in February decreased in Quebec (-11,400 to 116,400), while it increased in Ontario (+14,300 to 194,600) and Manitoba (+3,200 to 22,200). Job vacancies were little changed in six provinces.

In February, the job vacancy rate was highest in Manitoba (3.5%) and British Columbia (3.4%), while it was lowest in Newfoundland and Labrador (2.5%).

Year over year, the job vacancy rate was down in seven provinces in February, with the largest decreases being in Saskatchewan (-1.2 percentage points to 3.1%), Alberta (-1.0 percentage points to 2.8%), Quebec (-0.9 percentage points to 2.9%) and British Columbia (-0.9 percentage points to 3.4%).

Map 1: Job vacancy rate and unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio in February 2025 

Note: Data are seasonally adjusted. The unemployment-to-job-vacancy ratio is not available for the territories and the ratio for Canada excludes the territories for consistency with the geographic coverage of the Labour Force Survey. Data for Yukon were suppressed due to their low quality (F).

Sources: Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (5217), table 14-10-0432-01; Labour Force Survey (3701), table 14-10-0287-01.

Table 1: Average weekly earnings (including overtime) for all employees – Seasonally adjusted

Table 2: Number of employees – Seasonally adjusted

Table 3: Job vacancies and job vacancy rate – Seasonally adjusted