CANADIAN IMMIGRATION NEWS

Manitoba's weekly earnings ahead of national average

Thursday, 26 April 2007

Manitoba's weekly earnings ahead of national average

Manitoba's weekly earnings ahead of national average Thu Apr 26 12:52:00 CDT 2007 Average weekly earnings in Manitoba are running slightly ahead of the national average after the first two months of this year, according to new Statistics Canada figures released today. The federal agency said Manitoba’s payroll employees earned an average of $691.20 per week in the first two months of 2007. That was an increase of 3.4 per cent from the total for the first two months of last year, and was the fourth largest percentage gain among the 10 provinces. It was also slightly above the Canadian average increase of 3.1 per cent. The above-average performance reversed a trend which saw Manitoba post the smallest percentage increase in average weekly earnings in the country in 2006, at 2.3 per cent. That was well below the Canadian average for the year of 3.0 per cent. Not surprisingly, Alberta led the country in earnings growth in the first two months of this year, with a gain of 5.2 per cent. Prince Edward Island had the second highest year-to-date improvement at 4.8 per cent. On a month-to-month basis, Manitoba had the biggest percentage increase in average weekly earnings from January to February, at 1.5 per cent. That was well above the national average of 0.1 per cent. While there was a healthy jump in weekly earnings, Statistics Canada said there was little change in the number of payroll jobs in Manitoba in February. That figure was down 0.1 per cent to an estimated 530,600 in February from the 530,900 in January. For the first two months of the year combined (year-to-date), Manitoba’s total was up 0.1 per cent from the sample period of last year. Nationally, there was also little change in the number of payroll jobs in February. The total was up a mere 0.1 per cent to 14.3 million, Statistics Canada said.