Unemployed youth peruse a jobs board at a resource centre in TorontoKevin Van Paassen
Two-thirds of the country's industries were still in layoff mode in May - an improvement from January, Statistics Canada says.
The monthly survey of industry payrolls shows that 63 per cent of 305 sectors were cutting positions that month. That's down from 75 per cent in January, but about the same as in March and April.
Layoffs were particularly harsh in the auto sector, at elementary and high schools, and in full-service restaurants, Statscan said.
The widespread layoffs mean that 64,000 payroll jobs disappeared in May - a slight 0.4-per-cent decline from the losses in April. Since October, when Canada's labour market peaked, a total of 423,900 payroll positions have been eliminated.
The survey of employment, earnings and hours looks at company payrolls to determine trends in the job market. Unlike the Labour Force Survey, it does not include self-employment or farming.
The Labour Force Survey is larger and more up to date but relies on households rather than company books to give up details of their working lives. It showed little change in employment in June, after a decline of 42,000 positions in May.
By region, the May payroll survey showed the largest job losses were in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, Statscan said.
Average earnings, including overtime, were up 1.6 per cent from a year earlier. That's down considerably from the 3.0 per cent year-over-year increase marked in October, but was faster than the 1.1-per-cent change seen in April.
The largest raises were being handed out in health care and social assistance, where earnings were up 8.6 per cent from a year ago.
Factory workers, on the other hand, were earning 6.1 per cent less than a year ago, and teachers were making 1.9 per cent less.