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Job vacancies were off significantly in the construction sector in November. (Sources: Statistics Canada, Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (5217), table 14-10-0406-01)
In November, Canada’s construction sector had the third-largest yearly decline in job vacancies of all employment categories included in Statistics Canada’s most recent Job Vacancy and Wage Survey. Only retail trade and accommodation and food services had larger drops in available positions, with 18,950 fewer openings in the construction sector, compared to November of 2023.
By percentage, construction saw 32.5 per cent fewer vacancies this past November, than one year earlier, and the job vacancy rate fell from 4.7 per cent to 3.2 per cent for the industry.
Despite the yearly drop in vacancies, the sector was relatively flat on the labour front in November, with the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as “payroll employment” by Statistics Canada—only dropped by 400 workers in the sector, compared to October.
This was somewhat better than the overall average across all sectors, which saw payroll employment fall by 56,100 workers, or 0.3 per cent in November, following three consecutive months of little change. On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment was up by 0.8 per cent, or 142,900 positions, in November. Those figures were influenced by the strike at Canada Post, however, since striking workers are not included in payroll counts. Excluding the decline in their industry group, the overall decrease in national payroll employment was only 17,900, a fall of just 0.1 per cent, from October.