Retirements are adding to Canada's labour market woes. Statistics Canada estimates that population aging reduced Canada’s labour force by 374,000 over this three-year period.
Despite the recent slowdown in employment, labour markets remain tight, the latest government data reveals.
Canadian employment fell by 0.2% in August, amounting to a loss of 40,000 jobs, the third consecutive monthly drop, which brings the cumulative decline to 114,000 net jobs (0.6%) since May. Yet there are still over one million job vacancies and retirements among Baby Boomers are ramping up. There were 307,000 annualized retirements in August 2022 compared with 273,000 in August 2019. Statistics Canada estimates that population aging reduced Canada’s labour force by 374,000 over this three-year period.
Total hours worked are up 3.7% year-over-year.
The tight labour market is also continuing to place upward pressure on wages. Wage growth accelerated to 5.4% year-over-year in August (up from 5.2%). Wages for non-unionized workers are up more (6.3%) than for unionized workers (3.6%). That’s likely because gains for unionized workers may be delayed until collective agreements expire and are renegotiated, according to Stephen Tapp, chief economist with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
