Average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Alberta in September rose by 3.4 per cent from a year ago, according to Statistics Canada. They remain the highest among all Canadian provinces at $1,177.54.
The federal agency reported Thursday that the hike is “partially due to a low point observed in September 2018.”
“Large employment growth in the health care and social assistance sector, as well as increased earnings in the transportation and warehousing sector contributed the most to the earnings growth over this period,” said StatsCan.
On a month-over-month basis, earnings were up one per cent.
Across Canada, average weekly earnings rose to $1,042.09 in September, up 0.9 per cent from August.
“Compared with September 2018, earnings grew by 4.0 per cent, continuing an upward trend observed since March. In general, changes in weekly earnings reflect a number of factors, including wage growth; changes in the composition of employment by industry, occupation and level of job experience; and average hours worked per week. Non-farm payroll employees worked an average of 33.0 hours per week in September, up on both a monthly and year-over-year basis,” said Statistics Canada.
Compared with August, the number of payroll employees in Alberta declined by 4,200 in September. On a year-over-year basis, it was up by 25,000.
Across Canada, the number of payroll employees declined by 27,600 in September.
But on a year-over-year basis in September, the number of payroll employees grew by 303,700 (+1.8 per cent). Employment increased in most sectors, led by health care and social assistance (+66,300 or +3.3 per cent) as well as professional, scientific and technical services (+48,700 or +5.2 per cent). At the same time, decreases were recorded in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction (-2,900 or -1.4 per cent) and forestry, logging and support (-1,900 or -5.0 per cent).
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