Wages, job vacancies
Average weekly earnings reached $1,337.77 in May, little changed from April but up 3.4% year over year, following a 3.7% increase in April, Statistics Canada reported. The agency noted that “growth in average weekly earnings can reflect a range of factors, including changes in wages, composition of employment, hours worked and base-year effects.”
Average weekly hours worked held at 33.4 hours in May, little changed monthly and year over year. The moderating wage growth is a figure compensation teams will want to weigh when benchmarking salaries for the rest of the fiscal year.
Job vacancies stood at 495,700 in May, little changed from April, Statistics Canada said, marking the fifth consecutive month of little variation. The job vacancy rate was 2.8%, unchanged year over year and within the narrow 2.7%-to-2.8% range held since April 2025.
Vacancies rose in construction (+5,900; +18.4%) and professional, scientific and technical services (+4,500; +13.8%), but fell in health care and social assistance (-11,500; -11.6%), which StatCan described as “the first significant monthly decrease for this sector since December 2024.” Vacancies there, at 87,500, were the lowest since March 2020.