By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- Payroll employment data from Statistics Canada released today indicated strength in the Canadian labour market and resilience in the economy, further raising bets for a 75 basis point hike from the Bank of Canada
The number of employees receiving pay or benefits from their employer increased by +0.7% or 126,000 in April, driven by gains in both the services (+0.6% or 90,300 jobs) and goods (+0.6% or 18,700 jobs).
Gains in services were propelled by accommodation and food services (+34,500; +2.9%), although the sector, hard hit by Covid-19 restrictions, remained 118,200 (-8.8%) below its pre-pandemic peak.
Gains were spread across all provinces except for Quebec, which reported little change.
Job Vacancies also gained, surpassing the previous record, as employers in Canada were actively seeking to fill about one million (1,001,100) vacant positions at the beginning of April.
The job vacancy rate, which measures the number of vacant positions as a proportion of all positions (vacant and filled), was 5.8% in April.
Despite these indicators of strength in the labour market, wage growth remains stagnant, and far below inflation (7.7%). Average weekly earnings were $1,170, up 4.0% in April, slightly lower than the year-over-year increase observed in March (+4.2%). Arts, entertainment and recreation (-4.5% to $711) was the lone industry to report a year-over-year decrease in average weekly earnings.
Average weekly hours worked were little changed in April compared with the previous month, sitting at 1.8% above its pre-COVID level.