Construction employment down, investments up

By Robin MacLennan

Ontario Construction News staff writer

Data from Statistics Canada’s latest Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours shows employment across the country declined by 46,800 (-0.3%) in August, following little change in July.

The construction industry recorded the largest payroll employment decline in August. It was the first time since March that the sector reported a payroll decline and it was focused on specialty trade contractors (-13,000; -1.9%), including building equipment contractors (-4,600; -1.5%) and foundation, structure and building exterior contractors (-4,000; -3.0%). Declines were also recorded in non-residential building construction (-3,900; -3.1%), heavy and civil engineering construction (-3,700; -2.0%) and residential building construction (-1,700; -1.0%).

As employment declined, investment in building construction increased 1.1% to $17.9 billion in August. The residential sector was up 1.6% to $11.9 billion, while the non-residential sector remained relatively stable, up 0.1% to $5.9 billion.

Following five months of consecutive declines, investment in residential building construction rose 1.6% to $11.9 billion in August. Quebec (+7.6%; +$2.1 billion) led the growth in both single-family and multi-unit investment.

Single-family home investment rose 2.4% to $5.9 billion. Overall, six provinces posted gains. Quebec (+10.6%; +$95.0 million) had its largest monthly increase in this component since March 2022.

Multi-unit construction investment was up 0.9% to $6.0 billion in August 2023. Notably, after peaking in September 2022, British Columbia (-3.2% to $1.3 billion) posted its 11th consecutive decline in August 2023.

Investment in non-residential construction ticked up 0.1% to $5.9 billion in August.

Despite gains in industrial (+1.1%; +$13.4 billion) and institutional (+0.7%; +$10.1 million) investment, the decline in the commercial component (-0.5%; -$15.8 million) left the non-residential sector largely unchanged for the month.

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