Labour markets weaken in March: Statistics Canada

Employment continued to decline in March, according to new payroll data from Statistics Canada.

The national statistical agency reported that payrolls dropped by 0.3% in March, a decline of 54,100 employees.

The monthly decline in employment accelerated from the 0.2% drop in February, leaving payrolls up by just 32,800 workers over the previous 12 months.

Statistics Canada said that payrolls dropped in 10 out of 20 sectors in March, led by the education, health care, accommodation and retail trade industries. Employment was flat in seven sectors, and there were modest gains in three, it noted.

At the same time, the agency reported that the number of unfilled jobs was largely unchanged in March at 529,700.

While job vacancies haven’t changed much for seven straight months, they are down by 72,800 (-12.1%) over the past 12 months, Statistics Canada noted.

The job vacancy rate — which represents unfilled jobs as a share of total labour demand — rose by 0.1 percentage points in March to 3%.

Total labour demand — the sum of filled and unfilled positions — fell by 64,400 in March, down 0.4%, Statistics Canada said, leaving total demand up by just 0.3% on a year-over-year basis.

It also noted that the rise in unemployed workers, coupled with declining job vacancies, means there were 2.9 unemployed people for every unfilled job in March — an increase of 0.7 over the past year.

The growth in average weekly earnings also continued to slow in March, with the annual increase coming in at 4.3%, down from 5.1% in the previous month.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.