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August saw positive personnel trends for construction, shows Labour Force Survey

OTTAWA, Ont. – Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey for the month of August has given contractors a glimmer of hope when it comes to the ongoing labour force shortages and issues that the sector has been facing.

The construction sector’s unemployment rates were low at 3.4 per cent, with British Columbia (2.6 per cent), Quebec (1.9 per cent) and Nova Scotia (2.9 per cent) significantly contributing to this average. These numbers were not seasonally adjusted (NSA).

Across the labour market, August’s month-to-month hiring figure was the second best in more than three years, putting an additionally 34,000 people to work, which was surpassed only by February 2022’s figure of45,000.

Similarly positive growth was seen in job creation, with 40,000 total jobs being created last month, bringing the January-August average for created jobs to the same figure. This surpasses last year’s average over the same time period, 29,000, by nearly a third.