Employment rebounds modestly while job vacancies decline annually and retail struggles
Canada’s labour market showed modest momentum to start 2026, with payroll employment rebounding in January even as job vacancies continued to trend lower on an annual basis, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Payroll employment rose by 45,600 positions (+0.2%) in January, reversing a decline recorded in December. Compared with the same month a year earlier, payroll jobs were up by 33,500 (+0.2%), signalling relatively subdued annual growth.
The gains were spread across nearly half of all sectors, with nine out of 20 industries posting increases. Educational services led the expansion, adding 20,000 jobs (+1.4%), followed by construction (+8,100; +0.7%), finance and insurance (+6,600; +0.8%), and health care and social assistance (+3,700; +0.1%).
However, not all sectors shared in the improvement. Retail trade shed 6,600 positions (-0.3%) in January and remained notably weaker year over year, down 29,900 jobs (-1.5%), highlighting ongoing pressure in consumer-facing industries.
Wage growth remained moderate. Average weekly earnings increased 2.0% year over year to $1,320, while remaining largely unchanged from December. Average weekly hours held steady at 33.1 hours.
Meanwhile, labour demand showed limited movement. The number of job vacancies stood at 492,400 in January, little changed from the previous month but down by 35,100 (-6.7%) compared with a year earlier.
The job vacancy rate was unchanged at 2.8%, edging down slightly from 2.9% a year earlier. There were 3.0 unemployed individuals for every available job, an improvement from 3.1 in December and below the peak seen in mid-2025.
Sector-level vacancy trends were mixed. Retail trade was the only industry to post a monthly increase in vacancies (+4,900; +10.5%), while year-over-year declines were concentrated in health care and social assistance, accommodation and food services, and administrative support services.
Regionally, job vacancies fell compared with a year earlier in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, while New Brunswick recorded gains.
The data points to a labour market that is stabilizing but still facing uneven conditions across industries, with hiring gains in sectors like education and construction offset by continued softness in retail and a broader cooling in job openings.
