Employment services industry

The employment services industry's total operating revenue reached $6.1 billion in 2004, up 6.5% from 2003.

This industry's operating profit margin reached 4.0% in 2004, following levels of 3.7% in 2001, 3.6% in 2002 and 3.5% in 2003.

Ontario continued to dominate industry revenues with a 60.3% share, followed by Quebec (15.2%), Alberta (14.6%), and British Columbia (5.8%). Since 2003, the share of operating revenue has decreased slightly for Quebec and Ontario and increased for Alberta and British Columbia.

Temporary staffing activities generated $4.4 billion in operating revenue, a 6.0% increase over 2003. These activities accounted for 79% of operating revenue, up slightly from 2003.

Permanent placement activities also saw their operating revenue increase by 6.0% to $1.1 billion. The share of total operating revenue of these activities remained unchanged from 2003 at 19%.

A distinguishing feature of this industry is that a sizable portion of the overall activity was generated by a relatively small number of enterprises. The 20 largest firms accounted for 38% of total operating revenue, unchanged from 2003. Operating profit margin for the 20 largest enterprises remained stable at 3.4% in 2004 compared with the overall industry average of 4.0%.

Available on CANSIM: table 361-0001.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 4718.

Data for the 2004 employment services industry are now available. These data provide information such as revenue, salaries, wages and benefits, profit margin and expenditures.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Nancy Preston (613-951-0392; fax: 613-951-6696; nancy.preston@statcan.gc.ca), Service Industries Division.