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The construction sector mirrored general employment trends this past May, reports Statistics Canada, with a flat employment curve but fewer open jobs.
Job vacancies have decreased in a majority of sectors over the past 12 months, reports Statistics Canada. (Source: Statistics Canada, Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (5217), table 14-10-0406-01.)
The rise in the percentage of workers in Canada’s construction sector receiving pay and benefits, referred in as payroll employment, was in alignment with the almost flat overall employment figures in May, reports Statistics Canada in its latest Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours. Canada saw in increase of 0.1 per cent in the general employment ranks, which grew by 15,300 workers, with Canada’s construction sector adding 0.1 per cent to its ranks as well, gaining 1,200 workers for the month.
On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment was up by 43,300 workers across all sectors in May, a rise of 0.2 per cent. In the construction sector, payroll employment was little changed from May of last year.
In May, job vacancies in Canada fell by 20,400, or 4.1 per cent, to 478,200, extending the decline experienced in April. That result was the lowest level of job vacancies recorded since October of 2017 when 459,800 vacancies were posted. On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down by almost 16 per cent in in May.
The job vacancy rate, which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand, came in at 2.7 per cent for the month, down from 2.8 per cent in April and 0.5 percentage points from May of 2024.
There were 3.3 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in May 2025, up from 3.1 in April. According to Statistics Canada tracking, this was the highest unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio since January 2017, excluding 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting an increase in the number of unemployed persons coupled with a decrease in job vacancies. On a year-over-year basis, the unemployment rate increased from 6.3 per cent to 7.0 per cent in May, according to the Labour Force Survey.
Construction was not spared the drop in job vacancies. Openings in the sector fell by 5,400, or 13.5 per cent, with the sector’s 34,700 available positions marking the lowest level recorded since November of 2019, and the first monthly decrease since August of 2024. Year over year, vacancies in the sector were down by 8,600 positions, a drop of almost 20 per cent.