Construction payroll employment rises in February
By Adam Freill
Construction LabourSector employment rebounds from January; available construction job openings remains steady; 1,165,058 employed in sector in February.
(Source: Statistics Canada)
Apart from a small dip in January, payroll employment in the construction sector has been on a roll since last September, growing by an additional 10,400 in February, reports Statistics Canada. February’s 0.9 per cent increase in the sector contributed to the 62,500 additional payroll employees across all industries in Canada for the month in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours.
Overall cumulative gains across all sectors between September 2022 and February 2023 are sitting at 342,200, a rise of almost two per cent.
With more people in the workforce, job vacancies fell across all sectors in February. Overall, there were 841,300 openings, 34,900 less than the month before, and the fewest since August of 2021. The job vacancy rate, or the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand, decreased 0.2 percentage points to 4.7 per cent.
The construction sector held steady for the month with 69,400 openings available as the payroll employment figure hit 1,165,058 in February. On a year-over-year basis, employment was up almost four per cent in the sector.
