Payroll earnings increase slightly in June: StatsCan

Average weekly earnings up 0.3 per cent from May

Average weekly earnings for non-farm payroll employees increased 0.3 per cent from May to June, rising to $876.27.

That’s an increase of three per cent when compared to June 2010, according to Statistics Canada.

The average work week was 32.9 hours, unchanged from June 2010.

The increase in average earnings is due to a number of factors including wage growth and changed in the composition of employment by industry, occupation and level of job experience.

Average weekly earnings were up in every province in the 12 months leading up to June 2011, led by growth in Alberta and British Columbia. In Alberta, average weekly earnings in June were $1,041.45 a five per cent increase from June 2010.

Alberta has recorded year-over-year growth in earnings above the national average since March 2012.

The slowest growth was in Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island.

Earnings by industry

Professional, scientific and technical services and retail trade saw year-over-year growth above the national average of three per cent.

Year-over-year earnings declined in both accommodation and food services and in educational services.

In the 12 months to June, average weekly earnings in professional, scientific and technical services increased 5.2 per cent to $1,242.91. Since June 2010, a number of industries within the sector have had notable earnings growth including architectural, engineering and related services and computer systems design and related services.

The second fastest rate of growth in average weekly earnings occurred in retail trade, where earnings rose 3.7 per cent to $520.26, spread across a number of industries.

Average weekly hours worked

At 32.9 hours, average weekly hours were unchanged for the third consecutive month.

While overall average weekly hours were unchanged from June 2010, there were notable year-over-year increases in utilities at 3.1 per cent, finance and insurance at 1.5 per cent and health care and social assistance at 1.3 per cent.

There were declines in arts, entertainment and recreation which saw a 4.6 per cent decrease as well as in retail trade where the decline was 1.4 per cent.

Non-farm payroll employment by sector

Non-farm payroll employment rose by 63,600 from May to June. In the 12 months to June, the number of non-farm payroll employees increased by 258,100, or an increase of 1.8 per cent.

The monthly increase in June was spread across most sectors, with the largest gains in construction, public administration as well as health care and social assistance.

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