Canadians earned an average of $1,253 a week in June – a figure consistent with previous months but still four per cent higher than the same period last year, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.
The agency did not provide data on median income this month. An average, or mean, is calculated by adding all the data together and then dividing by the total number of amounts. This means the value can be affected by outliers, such as particularly high or low incomes.
StatCan's earnings summary comes at a time when Canadians are navigating a complex economic context. While the rise in inflation has slowed in recent months, prompting the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates and provide some relief to Canadians struggling with the cost of living, gasoline prices rose year-on-year last month and buying a home remains unaffordable for many. Data from StatCan shows the unemployment-to-vacancy ratio has risen again.
Weekly wages rose more in some industries than in others. In mining, quarrying and oil and gas production, workers earned an average of $168 more than in June of the previous year, for a total of $2,265.69 per week – the highest seasonally adjusted weekly wage recorded by StatCan. Workers in the information and culture industries earned $150 more per week ($1,645 per week) and in wholesale trade $111 more ($1,412 per week).
On average, people worked about 33.5 hours per week. This is the same as last month and 0.6 percent more than the previous year.
There were now 2.6 unemployed people for every vacant position, slightly more than in the previous month. This ratio has now increased for five months in a row, and generally since July 2022. Back then, the ratio was one to one.
In a few sectors, the number of vacancies has increased:
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Administrative and support services, waste management and remediation services, increase of 16 percent;
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Transport and storage, increase by 12.4 percent;
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Educational services: 16.3 percent;
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Information and culture industry: growth of 54.6 percent; and
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Arts, entertainment and recreation: Increase of 16.3 percent.
There were fewer vacancies in the following sectors in June:
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Accommodation and food services: decrease of 10.8 percent; and
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Finance and insurance, down 20.9 percent.
Due to these shifts, the overall vacancy rate remained unchanged in June compared to May.