Given the slump in Canada’s job market this year, wages are holding up reasonably well, StatsCan’s latest survey of payroll hours and earnings shows.
But some parts of the economy are much stronger than others, and that’s coming through in the wage gains seen in various industries.
Real estate professionals are seeing Canada’s biggest gains, with average weekly earnings soaring 12.8 per cent over the past year, Stats Can found.
That’s not so surprising, given the fact that house prices have been rising by much more than overall inflation in many of the country’s strongest markets, such as Calgary and Toronto, and real estate agents get paid on commission.
Other areas of wage strength also fall into the not-so-surprising pile, such as salaries in mining, oil and gas jumping 10 per cent, on average, over the past year. (With commodity prices in a slump, we’ll see if those wage gains will last.)
Then there are finance and management. As recently as this spring, those sectors were seeing relatively weak wage growth. But, recent stock market slump or not, wages in these sectors are back: Management wages are up 10 per cent on the year, while earnings in the financial sector jumped 9.3 per cent.
Overall, wages in Canada grew 3.3 per cent over the past year, somewhat faster than the 2.1-per-cent rate of inflation over that period.
The next peek at the shape of Canada’s economy will come Tuesday morning, when StatsCan releases the GDP figures for July. Analysts are looking for modest growth of around 2.4 per cent, annualized, for the month.
Here are the breakdowns of salaries by sector:
