AI Analysis: Employment, average hourly and weekly earnings, and average weekly hours by industry, monthly, seasonally adjusted

Executive Summary

Statistics Canada Table 14100221 tracks 25 years of monthly Canadian labour market data across 26 industries, revealing strong employment growth of 51.6% (from ~5.6 million to ~8.5 million workers) between January 2001 and February 2026, accompanied by consistent wage increases. Average hourly and weekly earnings are nearly perfectly correlated (r=0.9993) and both move closely with employment levels, while average weekly hours have remained remarkably stable throughout the period. The dataset is highly consistent with no extreme outliers detected, reflecting genuine long-term economic trends rather than data anomalies.

Key Findings

• Total employment across Canada's industrial aggregate grew by 51.6%, rising from approximately 5.6 million workers in January 2001 to 8.5 million by February 2026.
• Average hourly earnings (including overtime) ranged from $9.01 to $73.22 across industries, with an overall mean of $28.70 and a standard deviation of $9.79, indicating moderate but meaningful variation by sector.
• Average weekly earnings ranged widely from $203.31 to $2,917.13, with a mean of $1,035.31, highlighting significant compensation differences between higher-skilled or resource-intensive industries and lower-paying service or retail sectors.
• Average weekly hours were the most stable metric, declining only 1.3% over 25 years (from 34.5 to 34.0 hours) and showing only weak correlations with earnings (r=-0.19) and employment (r=-0.30).
• Average hourly earnings and average weekly earnings are almost perfectly correlated (r=0.9993), and both are strongly correlated with employment levels (r=0.97 and r=0.96 respectively), suggesting wage growth and job growth have moved together over the period.
• Using a rigorous 3x IQR outlier detection method, no extreme statistical outliers were identified across the 62,816 records, confirming the dataset reflects steady, real economic trends with no significant data quality issues.
• The dataset comprises 208 unique time series vectors across 26 NAICS industry categories and 302 monthly periods, providing granular and consistent coverage for industry-level labour market analysis from 2001 through early 2026.