Construction employment losses accompanied a noticeably lower volume of housing starts in May.
The most recent edition of the ADP Canada National Employment Report, which measures changes in total Canadian non-farm payroll employment, stated that the construction industry lost 11,223 jobs during that month.
This was the first decline for that month over the past 3 years, and represented a vast majority of the 16,020 employment losses nationwide in May.
“It’s also the largest decline over the past seven years. The shift is something worth watching,” Better Dwelling wrote in its analysis of the report. “Declines aren’t unusual, but typically employment rises in May.”
Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation indicated that nationwide starts for that month went down to 201,983 units, from the 205,717 in April.
The Crown corporation attributed the number to weaker construction activity in the single-family segment.
“The national trend in housing starts decreased in May as a result of continuing decline in the trend for single starts as well as a decline in the trend of multi-unit starts that follows gains in this segment in recent months, in urban areas,” CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan explained.
“The decrease in the trend of multi-unit starts reflects a decline in the SAAR level of multi-unit activity in May from the unusually elevated level registered in April, which leaves multi-unit SAAR starts closer to its 10-year average.”
Ephraim is currently a journalist at Mortgage Broker News, Real Estate Professional and Canadian Real Estate Wealth.
Ephraim is a highly accomplished news reporter whose work has been published across North America and the Asia Pacific region. Before joining Key Media, Ephraim spent eight years working as a journalist with Reuters TV. His areas of expertise include real estate, mortgage, and finance.
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