Health Care Is Driving Growth in Canada’s Job Market
Health Care, Business Services Are Driving Canadian Job Growth
(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s health-care industry can take much of the credit for helping buoy the nation’s labor market during a time of global deceleration.
Over the past five years, health care added 249,000 jobs, about a fifth of the total and the largest show of strength among 16 industries in a ZipRecruiter analysis of labor market data from Statistics Canada. Professional and business services and the transportation industry were next highest, accounting for a combined 353,000 new positions.
| Industry | 5-year change (2014-2019) | 1-year change (2018-2019) |
|---|---|---|
| Health care | 249,000 | 62,000 |
| Professional and business services | 210,000 | 76,000 |
| Transportation | 143,000 | 47,000 |
| Education | 118,000 | 33,000 |
Canada’s job market continues to be a bright spot in an economy that has otherwise seen mixed signals this year. The statistics agency will release its labor force survey for September on Friday, and economists expect job growth to cool to 5,000 after a stellar gain in August of 81,100.
When it comes to wage growth, which has been sluggish overall, workers in management occupations have seen the fastest increases over the past five years, according to the ZipRecruiter study. Wage growth in the business, sales and management sectors topped 12%, versus 7% in the health industry.
(A previous version of this story was corrected to show economists expect 5,000 job gains in September.)
--With assistance from Erik Hertzberg.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shelly Hagan in New York at shagan9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Chris Fournier, Stephen Wicary
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