The number of non-farm payroll employees continues to rise in Alberta.
A report released by Statistics Canada on Thursday showed that the number of employees rose by 3,400 in May from the previous month and that was up by 37,800 year-over-year.
Alberta also continues to register the highest wages of all the provinces. In May, average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $1,150.48, up 3.4 per cent from a year ago.
“The mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector contributed the most to the earnings growth. Both payroll employment and earnings rose in this high-paying sector. Earnings also increased in retail trade, while employment was virtually unchanged in the sector,” said the federal agency.
However, on a monthly basis, earnings fell by 0.2 per cent.
Nationally, average weekly earnings totalled $998 in May, up 0.4 per cent from April following five months of virtually no change. In the 12 months to May, earnings increased by 2.9 per cent, said StatsCan.
“In the 12 months to May, average weekly earnings increased in eight of the 10 largest industrial sectors. At the same time, there was little change in earnings in both educational services and administrative and support services,” it said.
The mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector continued to have the highest weekly earnings at $2,029.51. They fell by 2.3 per cent in May from April but on an annual basis they are 2.6 per cent higher.
In Canada, the number of non-farm payroll employees increased by 41,300 from April to May.
“The largest gains were in educational services, health care and social assistance, as well as arts, entertainment and recreation. Smaller increases were recorded in other industrial sectors, such as administrative and support services; professional, scientific and technical services; and public administration,” said Statistics Canada.
“In the 12 months to May, the number of payroll jobs rose by 385,900 (+2.4 per cent). Growth was widespread across sectors, with the largest increase in health care and social assistance (+53,700 or +2.8 per cent). The rise in this sector was shared between the ambulatory health care services and social assistance subsectors. There was also an increase in the number of payroll employees in manufacturing (+46,200 or +3.1 per cent) spread across most subsectors. The employment growth in educational services (+42,200 or +3.3 per cent) was driven by elementary and secondary schools.
“The number of payroll jobs increased by 41,000 or 4.6 per cent in professional, scientific and technical services. The rise was largely attributable to growth in the computer systems design and related services industry. Payroll employment has been trending upwards in the sector since September 2016. In public administration, the rise in payroll employment (+39,600 or +3.7 per cent) was driven by gains in federal as well as provincial and territorial public administration.”
Respected business writer Mario Toneguzzi is a veteran Calgary-based journalist who worked for 35 years for the Calgary Herald in various capacities, including 12 years as a senior business writer.
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