Canadian Payrolls Fall for First Time in Six Months, ADP Says

(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s payroll employment fell for the first time in six months in October, according to new tracking from the ADP Research Institute.

The job tally declined by 5,730 last month following a September gain of 43,386, ADP said Thursday from Toronto. The figures measure more than 2 million payroll records and are seasonally adjusted.

The job decline was led by goods-producing industries, including 8,200 in natural resources and mining and 7,200 in construction. Finance and real estate services provided the largest boost with 11,400 new positions.

Still, Canada’s labor market is robust, adding 25 percent more employees so far this year than it did in all of last year, said Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the institute. The new figures come at a time when Bank of Canada policy makers are closely tracking the job market to determine if the economy is at full capacity.

ADP plans to release data on the third Thursday of each month at 8:30 a.m. Toronto time, with the next one due on Dec. 21. The data is similar to Statistics Canada’s payroll employment release, known as SEPH, rather than the agency’s main labor force report, which is based on a survey of households.

The latest SEPH report from Oct. 26 showed payrolls rose by 38,900 in August, while the labor force survey had a 35,300 job gain for October.

While the two Statistics Canada reports tend to produce similar results over a period of several months, some economists look for big divergences between payrolls and household survey data for indications of turning points in the job market.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Chris Fournier, Carlos Caminada

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