Annual review of the labour market, 2017

This article analyses the Canadian labour market in 2017. The focus is on national trends as well as key provincial and industrial sector changes. In general, consistent signals across key labour market indicators pointed to a tightening of the labour market, including the fastest total employment growth in a decade and a downward trend in the national unemployment rate. At the same time, average weekly earnings increased notably, the number of regular Employment Insurance (EI) beneficiaries declined, and the job vacancy rate increased. All of these changes coincided with stronger economic growth, as the real gross domestic product grew 3.0% in 2017, following growth of 1.4% in 2016.Note The analysis in this article uses a combination of major labour market indicators from different sources. All analysis is based on annual averages, unless otherwise noted. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is used primarily for data on unemployment and employment details for demographic groups. The Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) is used for payroll employment by industrial sector as well as average weekly earnings and hours for employees. Data from the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (JVWS) and from EI statistics are also used.