Non-farm payroll employment increased by a moderate 34,500 in October, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.

A job-seeker wipes his face while searching for employment on a laptop computer while attending a job fair.A job-seeker wipes his face while searching for employment on a laptop computer while attending a job fair. (Paul Sancya/Associated Press)

The trend in payroll employment has been flat since June, the agency said, suggesting a shift from the job cuts that marked the first eight months of the recession.

In October, only 44.3 per cent of all industries tracked by the agency's Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours added jobs. But gains in education, health care, social assistance and construction were large enough to offset declines elsewhere.

Measuring jobs

In broad terms, Statistics Canada's Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours tracks the number of jobs across the country by calculating tax remittances by businesses registered with the Canada Revenue Agency. At regular intervals, registered firms must submit how much tax money they have withheld on behalf of how many employees. The changes in those figures therefore represent the net change in jobs, agency spokesman Danielle Zietsma says.

In effect, it is a compilation of payroll positions. If one person has three jobs, the survey would count each of their paid positions as one job. The survey excludes workers who are self-employed or those who are taking unpaid leave at any given time. It also excludes jobs in several sectors including agriculture, fishing and trapping, and religious organizations, as the agency deems them to be too volatile to effectively track.

October's increase was mainly the result of an additional 20,000 jobs in educational services and 14,600 in health care and social assistance, as well as smaller gains in construction and banking.

The increases in education and health care and social assistance employment are part of a longer trend, as both sectors have recorded payroll employment gains throughout the economic downturn. Construction-related payroll jobs have only been trending up since June.

Since that time payroll employment has edged up by an average of about 4,200 jobs a month nationally, a big shift from the average monthly loss of 51,200 jobs recorded in the eight months that followed October 2008.

Average weekly earnings, including overtime, of payroll employees was $831.17 in October, up 1.6 per cent from October 2008.

In the months before the labour market contraction began, the year-over-year increase in average weekly earnings was about three per cent, the agency said.

Weekly earnings rose in all provinces between October 2008 and October 2009.