The number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer—measured as “payroll employment” in the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours—decreased by 35,400 (-0.2%) in December, following little change in November. On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment was down 28,300 (-0.2%) in December, reported Statistics Canada on Thursday.
Monthly payroll employment declines were recorded in 9 out of 20 sectors in December, including manufacturing (-7,400; -0.5%), wholesale trade (-6,300; -0.8%), transportation and warehousing (-5,900; -0.7%), accommodation and food services (-5,000; -0.4%) and educational services (-4,600; -0.3%). Construction (+2,600; +0.2%) and health care and social assistance (+2,300; +0.1%) were the only sectors to record an increase in December, said the federal agency.
Meanwhile, in December, there were 514,600 vacant positions in Canada, up from 490,900 (+23,700; +4.8%) in November. This was the highest level of job vacancies recorded since March 2025 (516,900). Year over year, job vacancies were down by 20,500 (-3.8%) in December 2025.
Payroll employment decreases in nine sectors and increases in two in December
Statistics Canada said payroll employment in wholesale trade fell by 6,300 (-0.8%) in December, following two months of little change. The decline in December extends a downward trend recorded since September 2024, for a cumulative decrease of 17,600 (-2.1%).
Over this period, declines in payroll employment were recorded in 7 out of 9 subsectors, led by machinery, equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers (-6,400; -2.7%), personal and household goods merchant wholesalers (-3,000; -2.9%), building material and supplies merchant wholesalers (-2,600; -1.8%) and miscellaneous merchant wholesalers (-2,600; -3.0%), said the report.
“Payroll employment in accommodation and food services decreased in December (-5,000; -0.4%). Since September, payroll employment in the sector has declined by 8,800 (-0.7%),” said Statistics Canada.
“On a year-over-year basis, payroll employment in this sector was down 12,900 (-1.0%) in December, with declines recorded in 3 out of 6 industries. Full-service restaurants and limited-service eating places (-10,400; -1.0%) accounted for most (80.3%) of the year-over-year decline.”
In December, there were 514,600 vacant positions in Canada, up from 490,900 (+23,700; +4.8%) in November. This was the highest level of job vacancies recorded since March 2025 (516,900). Year over year, job vacancies were down by 20,500 (-3.8%) in December, said the report.
The job vacancy rate—which corresponds to the number of vacant positions as a proportion of total labour demand—was 2.9% in December, up from 2.7% in November. The rate was down by 0.1 percentage points from December 2024 (3.0%), it said.
“There were 3.0 unemployed persons for every job vacancy in December 2025, unchanged from November. On a year-over-year basis, the ratio was up by 0.2. This increase was the result of an increase in the number of unemployed persons in December (+49,100; +3.3%) (according to the Labour Force Survey) combined with a decrease in the number of job vacancies (-19,700; -3.7%, excluding the territories),” said Statistics Canada.
“In December, job vacancies were up in six sectors, led by accommodation and food services (+10,600; +18.9%), construction (+6,000; +17.6%), manufacturing (+2,900; +8.2%) and educational services (+2,900; +17.9%).
“In accommodation and food services, the monthly increase in job vacancies was the first since October 2023. In construction, the increase in job vacancies in December 2025 more than offset the decrease in November 2025 (-4,000; -10.6%). Meanwhile, the monthly increase in manufacturing brought the number of vacancies in the sector to the same level as in May 2024. On a year-over-year basis, job vacancies were down in health care and social assistance (-10,700; -10.0%), retail trade (-7,300; -14.0%) and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (-1,700; -20.1%). Over the same period, job vacancies in the remaining sectors were little changed.”
Month over month, job vacancies were up in six sectors in December
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