Payroll employment, earnings and hours, and job vacancies, April 2026
Released: 2026-06-25
$1,345.79
April 2026
3.8% 
(12-month change)
$1,294.87
April 2026
1.6%
(12-month change)
$1,161.80
April 2026
3.0%
(12-month change)
$1,221.52
April 2026
5.9%
(12-month change)
$1,256.45
April 2026
6.7%
(12-month change)
$1,292.50
April 2026
3.4%
(12-month change)
$1,381.76
April 2026
4.1%
(12-month change)
$1,234.99
April 2026
6.2%
(12-month change)
$1,297.38
April 2026
3.1%
(12-month change)
$1,394.29
April 2026
2.4%
(12-month change)
$1,357.68
April 2026
3.8%
(12-month change)
$1,528.24
April 2026
3.1%
(12-month change)
$1,753.13
April 2026
1.2%
(12-month change)
$1,887.89
April 2026
8.1%
(12-month change)
The number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as "payroll employment" in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—edged up by 22,000 (+0.1%) in April, following little variation in March (+5,700; +0.0%). Year over year, payroll employment was up by 78,100 (+0.4%) in April.
Meanwhile, there were 490,500 job vacancies in Canada in April, marking a fourth consecutive month of little variation. Compared with a year earlier, the number of job vacancies was down by 17,500 (-3.4%).
Chart 1
Payroll employment edges up in April
In April, monthly payroll employment gains were mainly recorded in health care and social assistance (+8,500; +0.3%), public administration (+6,700; +0.5%), and administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (+3,900; +0.5%). These gains were partially offset by declines in professional, scientific and technical services (-8,800; -0.7%), manufacturing (-3,400; -0.2%) and construction (-2,600; -0.2%).
Chart 2
Month over month employment changes by sector in April
Payroll employment in health care and social assistance continues to increase in April
Payroll employment in health care and social assistance rose by 8,500 (+0.3%) in April, bringing the cumulative increase to 49,700 (+2.0%) since September 2025. Over this period, payroll employment in this sector has increased in 14 out of 18 industries, led by general medical and surgical hospitals (+14,000; +2.1%), child day-care services (+6,300; +3.1%) and community care facilities for the elderly (+5,700; +3.9%).
Payroll employment in public administration increases in April
Payroll employment in public administration increased 6,700 (+0.5%) in April, following a similar-sized increase in March (+5,700; +0.4%). Gains over this two-month period were led by local, municipal and regional public administration (+8,200; +1.5%).
Year over year, payroll employment in public administration was up by 26,100 (+2.0%) in April, with the increase concentrated in local, municipal and regional public administration (+25,600; +5.0%). The lone subsector to record a year-over-year decline was federal government public administration (-5,100; -1.3%).
Payroll employment in professional, scientific and technical services decreases
Payroll employment in professional, scientific and technical services decreased by 8,800 (-0.7%) in April, bringing the cumulative decline from February to April to 9,500 (-0.8%). Over this period, the largest decline in payroll employment was in computer systems design and related services (-7,600; -2.0%). This industry accounted for 80.6% of overall payroll employment decline in the sector over this period.
Prior to the cumulative decline recorded from February to April, payroll employment in professional, scientific and technical services recorded little net variation from August 2025 to February 2026.
Manufacturing records payroll employment decline in April
In April, payroll employment in manufacturing decreased by 3,400 (-0.2%), partially offsetting the increase in March (+4,500; +0.3%). Monthly declines were recorded in 7 out of 21 subsectors in April, led by wood product manufacturing (-800; -0.9%).
Payroll employment in manufacturing was down by 15,500 (-1.0%) year over year in April, led by declines in transportation equipment manufacturing (-5,800; -2.9%), food manufacturing (-4,200; -1.6%) and wood product manufacturing (-3,000; -3.3%). These declines were partially offset by gains in petroleum and coal product manufacturing (+2,800; +16.5%), computer and electronic product manufacturing (+2,600; +4.8%) and machinery manufacturing (+2,100; +1.5%).
Payroll employment in construction falls in April
In April, payroll employment in construction (-2,600; -0.2%) was down for a third consecutive month, bringing the cumulative decline since February to 9,500 (-0.8%). The largest declines over this period were in foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors (-3,400; -2.5%), utility system construction (-2,200; -3.3%) and other heavy and civil engineering construction (-1,900; -5.1%).
Despite the recent monthly declines, payroll employment in construction in April was up by 10,800 (+0.9%) compared with a year earlier, led by gains in building equipment contractors (+4,800; +1.5%), non-residential building construction (+3,100; +2.4%) and other specialty trade contractors (+2,600; +1.9%). Residential building construction was little changed on a year-over-year basis.
Average weekly earnings increase both on a month-over-month and year-over-year basis
Month over month, average weekly earnings were up 1.0% to $1,346 in April.
Year over year, average weekly earnings were up 3.8% in April, following an increase of 3.5% in March. 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.
In April, average weekly hours worked (33.5 hours) were little changed on a month over month and year-over-year basis.
Job vacancies little changed in April
There were 490,500 job vacancies in Canada in April, marking a fourth consecutive month of little variation. Compared with a year earlier, the number of job vacancies was down by 17,500 (-3.4%) in April. This year-over-year decrease was significantly lower than the decline from April 2024 to April 2025 (-79,400; -13.5%).
The job vacancy rate—which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand—was 2.7% in April 2026, down from the rate of 2.8% observed from December 2025 to March 2026. Year over year, the job vacancy rate was also down by 0.1 percentage points from April 2025.
Total labour demand—which corresponds to the sum of filled and unfilled positions—was unchanged from March but was up by 0.5% year over year in April. This increase was due to an increase in payroll employment (+99,500; +0.6%), which was larger than the decrease in job vacancies (-17,500; -3.4%) over the same period.
There were 3.2 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in April 2026, up from 3.1 in both March 2026 and April 2025.
Infographic 1
The job vacancy rate remains stable in April
Job vacancies down in four sectors and up in one
In April, job vacancies decreased across four sectors: construction (-3,500; -10.0%), professional, scientific and technical services (-3,300; -9.4%), administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (-3,200; -12.8%) and real estate and rental and leasing (-1,100; -16.2%). The monthly decline in professional, scientific and technical services was the first since February 2024.
Retail trade was the lone sector to record an increase in April (+6,000; +11.9%). The increase offset most of the decrease recorded in the sector in March (-7,400; -12.8%) with the sector recording a net increase since September 2025 (+11,300; +25.3%).
On a year-over-year basis, vacancies were down in five sectors in April, led by construction (-9,800; -23.7%), administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (-7,500; -25.4%) and professional, scientific and technical services (-6,400; -16.7%). On the other hand, vacancies were up in retail trade (+7,400; +15.1%) and wholesale trade (+2,500; +13.7%).
Chart 3
Year-over-year changes in vacancies by sector
Job vacancy rate down year-over-year in two provinces and up in one province and one territory
Year over year, the job vacancy rate was down in Manitoba (-0.6 percentage points to 2.7%) and Ontario (-0.2 percentage points to 2.4%) while it was up in New Brunswick (+0.7 percentage points to 3.0%) and Northwest Territories (+2.5 percentage points to 5.4%). The highest job vacancy rates in April were in Northwest Territories (5.4%), Yukon (3.4%) and British Columbia (3.3%) while the lowest rates were in Newfoundland and Labrador (2.1%) and Ontario (2.4%).
In April, the highest unemployment-to-job vacancy ratios were seen in Newfoundland and Labrador (6.1) and Prince Edward Island (4.3), whereas Saskatchewan and Manitoba saw the lowest ratios (2.2 and 2.3 respectively).
Map 1
Job vacancy rate and unemployment-to-job-vacancy ratio in April 2026
Sustainable Development Goals
On January 1, 2016, the world officially began implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—the United Nations' transformative plan of action that addresses urgent global challenges over the next 15 years. The plan is based on 17 specific sustainable development goals.
The Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours is an example of how Statistics Canada supports the reporting on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. This release will be used in helping to measure the following goals:
Note to readers
Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours
The key objective of the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) is to provide a monthly portrait of the level of earnings, employment and hours worked, by detailed industry, at the national, provincial and territorial levels.
Payroll employment, as measured by the SEPH, refers to the number of employees receiving pay and benefits (employment income) during a given month. The survey excludes the self-employed, owners and partners of unincorporated businesses and professional practices, and employees in the agricultural sector.
SEPH estimates are produced by integrating information from three sources: a census of approximately 1 million payroll deduction records provided by the Canada Revenue Agency; the Business Payrolls Survey, which collects data from a sample of 15,000 establishments; and administrative records of federal, provincial and territorial public administration employment, provided by these levels of government.
Estimates of average weekly earnings and hours worked are based on a sample and are therefore subject to sampling variability. This analysis focuses on differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 68% confidence level. Payroll employment estimates are based on a census of administrative data and are not subject to sampling variability.
With each release of SEPH data, data for the preceding month are revised. Users are encouraged to use the most up-to-date data available for each month.
Statistics Canada also produces employment estimates from its Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS is a monthly household survey, the main objective of which is to divide the working-age population into three mutually exclusive groups: the employed (including the self-employed), the unemployed and those not in the labour force. This survey is the official source for the unemployment rate, and it collects data on the sociodemographic characteristics of all people in the labour market.
Employment trends from the SEPH and from the LFS generally track each other closely, especially over longer periods of time. That said, because of differences in concepts, definitions and methodologies, variations in employment levels in SEPH and in the LFS may differ, especially over shorter periods. For a more in-depth discussion of the conceptual differences between employment measures from the LFS and the SEPH, refer to Section 8 of the Guide to the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (72-203-G).
The SEPH and LFS both also provide monthly indicators of pay received by employees. Used together, average weekly earnings (from SEPH) and average hourly wages (from the LFS) can provide a comprehensive portrait of pay dynamics in Canada. For information on definitions for each indicator, key conceptual and measurement differences, and guidance to data users on when to use each indicator, refer to the report "Earnings and Wages – A guide to using indicators from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours and the Labour Force Survey."
Unless otherwise stated, this release presents seasonally adjusted data, which facilitate comparisons because the effects of seasonal variations are removed. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonal adjustment: Concepts and interpretation, 2026.
Non-farm payroll employment data are for all hourly and salaried employees and for the "other employees" category, which includes piece-rate and commission-only employees.
Unless otherwise specified, average weekly hours data are for hourly and salaried employees only and exclude businesses that could not be classified to a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2022 version 1.0 code.
All earnings data include overtime and exclude businesses that could not be classified to a NAICS code. Earnings data are based on gross taxable payroll before source deductions. Average weekly earnings are derived by dividing total weekly earnings by the number of employees. Changes in average weekly earnings can reflect a range of factors, including changes in wages, composition of employment, hours worked and base-year effects.
The base-year effect refers to the impact that trends from 12 months earlier (the base month) have on the current month's estimate of year-over-year change. In the case of SEPH, when the average weekly earnings in the base month is at the peak of a short-term trend, this tends to have a downward effect on year-over-year average weekly earnings growth in the current month. In contrast, if the value of the base month is at a low point of a trend, this tends to have an upward effect on the current month's year-over-year growth in average weekly earnings.
Job Vacancy and Wage Survey
The Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (JVWS) collection is done on a quarterly basis. The quarterly sample of business locations is allocated to the three collection months of the quarter, approximately balanced by province and by industrial sector across each of the three months. This allows both quarterly and monthly estimates to be produced.
Preliminary monthly estimates are produced for job vacancies, job vacancy rates and payroll employment using available responses from business locations sampled in the corresponding reference month. The reference period for the JVWS is the first day of the respective month. This analysis focuses on differences between estimates that are statistically significant at the 68% confidence level.
These preliminary monthly estimates are revised and finalized when the corresponding quarterly estimates are released or shortly thereafter. Users are encouraged to use the most up-to-date data available for each month.
Unless otherwise stated, this release presents seasonally adjusted data, which facilitate comparisons because the effects of seasonal variations are removed. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonal adjustment: Concepts and interpretation, 2026.
While JVWS employment is calibrated to the SEPH, SEPH payroll employment and JVWS preliminary monthly employment figures may differ because of calibration grouping and differences in scope and reference period.
The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio excludes the territories for consistency with the geographic coverage of the comparable LFS data (table 14-10-0287-01).
The JVWS also provides comprehensive quarterly data on job vacancies by industrial sector and detailed occupation for Canada and the provinces, territories and economic regions; offered hourly wages; and job vacancy characteristics. More information about the concepts and use of data from the JVWS is available in the Guide to the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (75-514-G).
Real-time data tables
Tables 14-10-0357-01 and 14-10-0358-01 have now been archived.
Real-time data tables 14-10-0331-01 and 14-10-0332-01 will be updated on July 13, 2026.
New data table on monthly payroll employment for agriculture and support activities
A new data table (14-10-0481) presenting the number of payroll employees in the agriculture and support activities industries is now available on the Statistics Canada website. This new monthly table includes all industries primarily engaged in crop production, animal production and aquaculture, and their respective support activities since January 2025.
To classify employment data by industry, the SEPH program uses industry codes assigned to businesses based on their main revenue-generating activity, using the NAICS. The population covered in this new SEPH data table includes crop production (NAICS 111), support activities for crop production (NAICS 1151), animal production and aquaculture (NAICS 112), and support activities for animal production (NAICS 1152). It is important to note that these agriculture-related industries are excluded from the total SEPH employment counts presented in table 14-10-0201-01.
Revisions to seasonally adjusted Job Vacancy and Wage Survey tables
On June 25, 2026, revised monthly JVWS seasonally adjusted data were released, resulting in minor changes to the estimates. Estimates from April 2015 to March 2026 were republished, incorporating a fine-tuning of the parameters used in the seasonal adjustment process. Estimates from April 2026 onward also use the updated seasonal adjustment parameters.
Next release
May 2026 data for SEPH and JVWS will be released on July 30, 2026.
Products
More information about the concepts and use of the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours is available in the Guide to the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (72-203-G).
The product "Earnings and payroll employment in brief: Interactive app" (14200001) is now available. This interactive data visualization application provides a comprehensive picture of the Canadian labour market using the most recent data from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours. The estimates are seasonally adjusted and available by province and largest industrial sector. Historical estimates that go back 10 years are also included. The interactive application allows users to explore and personalize the information presented quickly and easily. Combine multiple provinces and industrial sectors to create your own labour market domains of interest.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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