Canada’s job market continued to lose steam in August, with payroll employment barely budging and job vacancies plunging to their lowest level since 2017.
The latest payroll survey shows a mere 3,300 additional employees on Canadian payrolls in August, essentially no change from July. Over the past year, only 31,500 new positions have been added, representing a growth rate of just 0.2 percent. Behind the stagnant headline lies an economy where public-sector hiring is doing the heavy lifting, while private industries are retrenching.
Public administration saw a modest rise of 5,000 positions, mostly in provincial and territorial offices. Yet even that gain barely offsets the 14,000 federal jobs lost over the past year, suggesting Ottawa’s own payroll contraction is undermining broader employment stability.
Construction added 2,300 jobs, but the sector’s rebound has been slow and uneven after a difficult winter.
The private sector’s weakness is becoming clearer with every monthly report. Retail employment fell by 4,600 in August, continuing a decline that has erased 24,000 jobs since January. Food and beverage stores and general merchandise retailers have been the hardest hit, exposing how squeezed household budgets are translating into layoffs.
Wholesale trade dropped another 3,300 positions, and professional, scientific, and technical services lost 2,600 jobs. Accounting and consulting firms have been shedding staff, while tech-related employment has flatlined since the start of the year.
Average weekly earnings rose 3.0 percent to $1,312 compared with August 2024. But the increase says less about broad-based prosperity and more about compositional changes. When adjusted for inflation and reduced working hours, the gain offers little sign of improved household purchasing power.
Average weekly hours, now at 33.3, are down from last year, reflecting shorter schedules and reduced overtime in key sectors.
Employers posted 457,400 job openings in August, down more than 82,000 from a year earlier and marking the weakest demand for workers in eight years. There are now 3.5 unemployed people for every available job, the highest ratio since 2016 outside the pandemic period.
The gap signals that businesses are not just hiring cautiously but may be scaling back operations altogether. Transportation and warehousing vacancies dropped to their lowest level in over seven years, while information and cultural industries also saw further reductions.
Only agriculture and resource-based sectors showed any increase in job postings, likely reflecting seasonal needs rather than sustained hiring.
British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec led the national decline in vacancies, with drops of 23 percent, 11 percent, and 14 percent, respectively. The western provinces are now facing the steepest slowdown. Alberta’s unemployment-to-vacancy ratio climbed to 4.1, its highest level in years, while Newfoundland and Labrador’s rose to 7.3.
For many Canadians, the slowdown means fewer opportunities and greater job insecurity, even as the cost of living remains elevated. While wages are still rising on paper, the pace of job creation has ground nearly to a halt, leaving the labour market weaker and more uneven than it has been in a decade.