It's a bit more dated than the labour force survey, but Statistics Canada's monthly payrolls report released Thursday offers interesting details on shifts in the country's labour market.
One such nugget is where the jobs are being created -- and where they're disappearing.
The most amount of hiring, in percentage terms, between August of last year and this August has been in mining and quarrying, and oil and gas extraction. It's up 10.2 per cent. Construction comes next, though growth has tapered off since April. Other job creation has come in finance and insurance, education and health care.
Some industries have actually shed jobs in the past year, even as the economy recovered and all the jobs lost through the recession were recouped. These are retail trade, transportation and warehousing along with information and culture. The real-estate sector has lost jobs, no surprise given the recent cooling in the market.
But the biggest decline in percentage terms? Management of companies and enterprises.
In terms of absolute numbers, most Canadians are employed in retail trade, manufacturing, education and health care.
So which sectors will grow the most in the coming year? It's tough to call. But the U.S. research firm Sageworks says the fastest-growing and most resilient areas these days are in technical and trade schools, home health-care services, pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing and education support services. This being the U.S., the other growth area: activities related to credit intermediation.