Payroll Employment and Job Vacancies Decline in February 2025

Statistics Canada reported that payroll employment in Canada decreased by 19,100 (0.1%) in February 2025, following an increase of 13,000 (0.1%) in January 2025. In Ontario, payroll employment also declined over this period. The release did not provide figures specific to individual towns in Northeast Ontario.

At the national level, the health care and social assistance sector and the retail trade sector experienced the largest declines in payroll employment in February. Average weekly earnings in Canada remained largely unchanged during the month. Statistics Canada also found no significant change in the average weekly hours worked on a national or provincial basis.

Job vacancies decreased nationally in February 2025, according to Statistics Canada. Health care and social assistance continued to report the highest number of job vacancies across all sectors in the country. No region-specific job vacancy data for Northeast Ontario was published in the release.

The data in this article is drawn from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours released by Statistics Canada.