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Payroll employment, earnings and hours

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The Daily


Thursday, December 21, 2006
October 2006 (preliminary)

The average weekly earnings of payroll employees increased 1.0% from September to $756.99 (seasonally adjusted). This leaves the year-to-date growth in earnings at 3.1%. This annual rate of change is obtained by comparing the average weekly earnings of the first 10 months of 2006 with the average of the same months of 2005.

In Canada's largest industrial sectors, year-to-date earnings growth as of October was: 3.8% for health and social assistance, 3.6% for educational services, 2.7% for retail trade, and 2.4% for manufacturing.

There were 14,059,000 payroll jobs in Canada in October, an increase of 13,200 employees (+0.1%) from September. British Columbia (+0.3%) and New Brunswick (+0.2%) posted the largest percentage increases from September to October. The largest decrease was in Newfoundland and Labrador (-0.9%).

Nationally, payroll employment has increased by approximately 186,700 jobs since the beginning of 2006.

The average hourly earnings for hourly paid employees increased 0.9% in October to $18.70. The average weekly hours for hourly paid employees fell 0.3% to 31.6 hours.

Available on CANSIM: tables 281-0023 to 281-0046.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2612.

Detailed industry data, data by size of enterprise based on employment, and other labour market indicators will be available soon in the monthly publication Employment, Earnings and Hours (72-002-XIB, free).

Data on payroll employment, earnings and hours for November will be released on January 29, 2007.

For general information or to order data, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-866-873-8788; 613-951-4090; fax: 613-951-2869; labour@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Peter Lorenz (613-951-4167), Labour Statistics Division.

Tables. Table(s).