Canadian construction employment grows, but manufacturing still suffers
Denise Holtby, Reed Construction Data
For the first time in seven months, employment in Canada fell in December 2007, resulting in the loss of 19,000 jobs, according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada.
However, employment was up over the course of the year by an estimated 2.2% or 370,000 jobs.
These figures are quite similar to the 2006 growth rate of +2.1% and represent the 15th consecutive year of employment growth in Canada.
Employment in construction (+6.8%) and utilities (+13.0%) continued to grow in 2007.
Despite this strength in construction and utilities, however, the goods-producing sector declined by 1.2% (-48,000) in 2007.
With the surge in the Canadian dollar, higher energy costs and stiff competition from other countries, the manufacturing industry suffered deep employment losses in 2007.
Employment in manufacturing shrank by an estimated 132,000 jobs (-6.2%). This figure represents accumulated losses of 348,000 jobs (-14.9%) since November 2002 and comes quite close to the early-1990s decline of 364,000 manufacturing jobs (-17.1%).
