In assessing the jobs market, Statistics Canada’s payroll employment, earnings and hours survey, provides some insights to the fluctuations. This report is issued every Friday.

While Payroll data is not as closely scrutimized as Stats Can’s labour force report chiefly due to their two-month lag, we also have to keep in mind that hey also don’t track things such as self-employment or trends that incorporate age and gender.

This week’s report which is a business census of non-farm payroll employees, has some important information to consider. It provides a monthly picture of earnings levels, job numbers and hours worked by industry at the national and provincial levels.

The report will be released in a week along with budget news. The Ontario government budget will alos be released on Tuesday. The federal government budget will be published Thursday.

The economy, and of course, employment, remains a source of major concern among Canadians. Here are five key trends in the labour market, based on the most recent payroll data:

1. The retail sector is the single largest employer in Canada, with 1.9 million workers. That translates into one in every eight workers. Health care and social assistance, and manufacturing, are the country’s next top employers.

2. The miming sector has added more jobs in the last year, percentage-wise, than any other sector in natural resources. Employment has increased by 7.7 per cent in mining. It should be noted however, that even with these gains, factories still employ seven times as many people.

3. The biggest percentage decline in the last year have been in the areas of real estate, rental and leasing area. Education sectpr has also decreased in jobs, as well as in the information and cultural industries.

4. It is not surprise that Alberta has seen the biggest payrolls gains, followed by Saskatchewan. The Maritime provinces have lost jobs in the last year.

5. Average weekly earnings among employees showed 2.4 per cent higher than a year ago, this is two points below the current rate of inflation. The average worker earned $888.26 a week. The year by year wage growth is strongest in Newfoundland, where the earnings have been higher than the national average since September.