Payrolls declined in June, but job vacancies rose, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
The national statistical agency reported that payroll employment dropped in 10 of the 20 industry sectors, led by the manufacturing sector, retail trade, and construction. Only the public sector posted gains, and there was little change in the other nine industries.
Overall, payrolls were down by 32,900 in the month, with over half of that total (16,500) coming from the manufacturing and retail sectors.
For the first half, manufacturing employment was down by 26,600, and retail payrolls have dropped 23,800 workers, Statistics Canada reported.
At the same time, job vacancies rose by 12,100 in June, partly offsetting the decline recorded in April and May. As a result, the job vacancy rate — the share of total labour demand represented by unfilled jobs — ticked up to 2.8% in the month, up from 2.7% in May.
While the market typically doesn’t pay much attention to the lagging payroll numbers, National Bank Financial Inc. (NBF) says that the data on job vacancies can be a signal to future employment trends.
“Technically, vacant jobs rose in June, but the increase was modest and the number of open positions is lower than last year,” it said in a research note — noting that this, “implies more labour market slack will accumulate.”
“The vacancy rate is in line with the 2017 levels, back when the [Bank of Canada] was just beginning to tighten policy from below 1%,” it said.
Year over year, job vacancies were down in 11 sectors in June. The largest declines were recorded in health care and social assistance (down 18.5% or 22,400 jobs), transportation and warehousing (down 24.7% or 8,000) and retail trade (down 13.5% or 7,100). Finance and insurance was the only sector to record an increase in vacancies, with a rise of 21.8% or 3,800.
Statistics Canada also reported that average weekly earnings rose, with the annual rate of increase rising to 3.7% in June from 3.3% in May .
Indeed, despite the recent weakness in payrolls, on a year-over-year basis, employment was still up by 41,000 in June, it noted.