Labour Force Survey, August 2013, published September 6

Posted by on Sep 11, 2013 in Featured | 0 comments

Employment in August was up 0.3% from July. The unemployment rate was down from July at 7.1%.  Construction employment grew by 1.3% from July while manufacturing employment increased 0.3% from a month earlier.

In August, employment stood at 17.7 million, up 1.4% from August 2012.  Full-time employment grew by 17,400 from July, while part-time employment increased by 41,800 from the previous month.  Full-time employment was up by 175,600 from August 2012, while part-time increased by 70,600 over the same period.

Employment over the past year grew in seven provinces, led by Alberta (+3.6%),  Prince Edward Island (+2.4%) and Ontario (+2.2%).  The employment growth rate in Quebec was 0.1%.   Employment from a year earlier was down 0.5% in New Brunswick and dropped 0.3% in British Columbia.

Total employment gains of 148,700 have occurred in Ontario since August 2012.  Its unemployment rate was 7.5% in August, down from 7.6% in July.  Quebec’s total employment increase since August 2012 was 5,100.  Its unemployment rate in August was 7.9%, down from 8.2% in July.     Since August 2012, employment in the goods-producing sector has increased by 1.5% and in the services-producing sector it has grown by 1.4%.

The construction industry gained 17,700 jobs in August over July, bringing total construction employment to 1,356,300, which is an increase of 113,300 construction jobs (+9.1%) from August 2012.

Total manufacturing employment was up 5,700 from July to 1,745,600 jobs.  That was a loss of 53,400 positions (-3.0%) since the same month last year.

The number of people working in retail and wholesale trade was unchanged in August from July and totaled 2,715,100.  That was a gain of 3.3% from August 2012.

Employment among adult women, aged 25 and over, was up 107,200 in August 2013 over August 2012 and increased by 38,000 from July.  Employment among adult men was up 99,100 in August 2013 over August 2012 and grew by 15,700 from July.  Employment among youths (15-24 years of age) grew by 39,800 since last August, and was up by 5,400 from July.

In August, private sector employment was up 30,900 from July, and increased 1.5% from August 2012.  Self-employment was up 0.7% in August over July, and increased by 3.6% from August 2012.  Public sector employment was up 0.3% from July but decreased by 0.4% from August 2012.  Total private sector employment in August was 11,424,100; self-employment was 2,744,700; and public sector employment was 3,600,000.