Payroll employment in retail trade fell by 9,000 (-0.5%) in December, continuing the downward trend seen since January 2024, reported Statistics Canada on Thursday.
The net decline from January to December (-39,500; -2.0%) was led by sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and miscellaneous retailers (-14,500; -6.8%), followed by building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (-8,700; -6.0%), clothing, clothing accessories, shoes, jewelry, luggage and leather goods retailers (-7,100; -3.4%) and general merchandise retailers (-5,500; -2.1%), said the federal agency.
Motor vehicle and parts dealers (+1,700; +0.7%) was the sole subsector to record a gain over the same period, it said.
“In December, the number of job vacancies increased in retail trade (+9,600 to 52,200), management of companies and enterprises (+700 to 2,900) and utilities (+600 to 2,300). These increases were largely offset by decreases in health care and social assistance (-7,600 to 107,300) and finance and insurance (-3,500 to 20,100),” noted Statistics Canada.
“Year over year, vacancies declined in 12 of the 20 sectors in December, with the largest decreases being in accommodation and food services (-19,700; -24.3%), health care and social assistance (-18,600; -14.8%) and construction (-12,300; -22.3%). Over the same period, job vacancies in the remaining eight sectors were little changed.”
The number of vacant positions in retail trade increased by 9,600 (+22.6%) to 52,200 in December, the largest increase across all sectors in the month. With this increase, the number of vacancies in December was similar to the number recorded in July 2024 (52,300). On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies in retail trade were down by 7,100 (-11.9%) in December, explained Statistics Canada.
The job vacancy rate in the retail trade sector increased by 0.5 percentage points to 2.6% in December but was down 0.3 percentage points from December 2023 (2.9%), it said.
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