Job vacancies edge closer to stability, but retail and construction keep shedding workers
Canada's labour market gave ground again in March, with payroll employment slipping 31,800, or 0.2%, according to fresh data from Statistics Canada. It’s the second consecutive monthly decline and pushing the cumulative drop since February to nearly 70,000 positions.
Despite the back-to-back retreat, the year-over-year picture remains marginally positive. Compared with March 2025, payroll employment was still ahead by 23,700, or 0.1%, suggesting the deterioration remains relatively contained for now.
Sectors driving the monthly decline included accommodation and food services, construction, retail trade, other services, and real estate. Only public administration and management of companies posted gains during the month.
Wages, however, continued to rise. Average weekly earnings reached $1,333 in March, up 3.5% from a year earlier — an acceleration from the 2.8% annual gain recorded in February. Average weekly hours were little changed at 33.4 hours, down just 0.3% year over year.
Hospitality, construction, retail
Accommodation and food services shed 7,000 jobs in March, a 0.5% decline, extending a losing streak that has now erased 9,700 positions over two months. The sector had added 3,100 jobs in January, making the reversal sharper in context.
The pullback was widespread across the sector. Full-service restaurants and limited-service eating places accounted for the bulk of the losses at 6,300, with special food services and traveller accommodation also contracting.
Construction fell by 4,100 jobs, or 0.3%, in March, nearly matching the 4,200 lost in February. The back-to-back declines follow a period of strong growth — the sector had accumulated 19,600 net new jobs between June 2025 and January 2026. Foundation and exterior contractors led the March drop, alongside residential building construction.
On an annual basis, however, construction payrolls were still up 12,700, or 1.1%, with building equipment contractors and non-residential construction among the drivers of that longer-term gain.
Retail trade lost another 3,600 positions in March, a 0.2% decline that extends what Statistics Canada describes as a downward trend stretching back to a peak in June 2023. Since that peak, the sector has shed nearly 70,000 jobs in total.
Year over year, retail was down 20,300, or 1.0%, in March. Clothing and accessories retailers, department stores, and home furnishings outlets were among the hardest hit, partially offset by growth at warehouse clubs and supercentres.
Real estate also shed staff, falling 1,900 in March after a modest gain in February. Offices of real estate agents and brokers and activities related to real estate were both down on a year-over-year basis.
Public administration added 4,300 jobs in March, its third straight monthly gain, lifting the sector's cumulative increase since January to 7,500, or 0.6%. Local and municipal governments drove most of that growth. Federal government employment, by contrast, fell 2,500 over the January-to-March period.
Job openings stabilize
Canada's job vacancy count held relatively steady at around 500,300 in March. While that is still down 16,500, or 3.2%, from a year earlier, the pace of annual decline has slowed markedly. The drop from March 2024 to March 2025 had been 81,900, or 13.7% — making the latest figure the smallest year-over-year decrease since September 2019.
The vacancy rate held at 2.8% for a second consecutive month, down just 0.1 percentage point from March 2025. There were 3.0 unemployed persons for every available position, unchanged from a year ago.
Monthly vacancy increases were recorded in administrative and support services, information and cultural industries, and utilities, while arts, entertainment and recreation and other services posted declines.
Provincially, Saskatchewan was the only jurisdiction to record a month-over-month increase in vacancies in March — its first since May 2024. Yukon and Prince Edward Island had the highest vacancy rates in the country at 4.8% and 3.5% respectively, while Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario were at the lower end.
