Labour Force Survey, November 2013, published December 6
Employment in November was up 0.1% from October. The unemployment rate was unchanged from October at 6.9%. Construction employment fell by 1.3% from October while manufacturing employment increased 1.5% from a month earlier. In November, employment stood at 17.8 million, up 1.0% from November 2012. Full-time employment grew by 1,400 from October, while part-time employment increased by 20,000 from the previous month. Full-time employment was up by 111,400 from November 2012, while part-time increased by 67,600 over the same period. Employment over the past year grew in six provinces, led...
Read MoreBuilding Permits, October 2013, published December 5
Municipalities issued $7.2 billion worth of building permits in October, up 7.4% from September and 6.2% lower than in October 2012. Two provinces reported an increase in permits over a year ago. Double-digit gains were recorded in Alberta (+23.6%) and Saskatchewan (+14.0%). Double-digit annualized decreases over October 2012 occurred in seven provinces. Nova Scotia suffered the largest loss (-43.5%) followed by Manitoba (-30.2%) and Prince Edward Island (-27.1%). Ontario registered an annualized loss of 13.6% while Quebec recorded an 18.3% decrease. Builders took out residential...
Read MoreRetail Trade, September 2013, published November 22
Retail sales in September 2013 were $40.7 billion, an increase of 1.0% from August and up 3.6% from September 2012. This was the third consecutive monthly gain. Excluding sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers and by gasoline stations, retail sales were up by 1.8% from September 2012. Retail sales in volume terms were up 1.0% from August. Increases in month-over-month sales were reported in 6 of 11 sectors representing 55% of total retail sales. Total retail sales for the first nine months of 2013 were $359.3 billion, up 2.2% over the same period last year. Sales in the building...
Read MoreWholesale Trade, August 2013, published October 21
Wholesalers sold $49.8 billion worth of goods and services in August, up 0.5% from July and 1.3% higher than in August 2012. Excluding the automotive sector, wholesale sales were up 1.6% from August 2012. In terms of volume, wholesale sales were up 0.3% in August from July. Annualized wholesale sales grew in six provinces. British Columbia (+5.6%) led the way, followed by Manitoba (+3.7%) and New Brunswick (+3.3%). The losses occurred in Nova Scotia (-4.0%) followed by Prince Edward Island (-1.1%) and Quebec (-1.0%) Ontario’s wholesale sales in August were up (+1.4%) from a...
Read MoreOPP Issues FRAUD ALERT to Building Materials Retailers
Since December of 2012 several East Region OPP detachments have documented fraud complaints where a Montreal sourced group places orders for construction material by phone using fraudulent credit card data. Materials sought have been mostly plywood but a similar pattern was observed involving thermostats and other construction material. Generally the orders for these supplies exceed $5000 in value each time but not always. Big box stores as well as private lumber yards have fallen victim to this ploy. A review of investigations for this period has identified similar incidents in...
Read MoreLabour Force Survey, August 2013, published September 6
Employment in August was up 0.3% from July. The unemployment rate was down from July at 7.1%. Construction employment grew by 1.3% from July while manufacturing employment increased 0.3% from a month earlier. In August, employment stood at 17.7 million, up 1.4% from August 2012. Full-time employment grew by 17,400 from July, while part-time employment increased by 41,800 from the previous month. Full-time employment was up by 175,600 from August 2012, while part-time increased by 70,600 over the same period. Employment over the past year grew in seven provinces, led by Alberta (+3.6%), ...
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