Canadian public-sector employment rose 0.2% in Q1 from Q4 2011, to 3.6 million, led by increases in health and social services, local government

Cindy Allen

OTTAWA , May 30, 2012 (Statistics Canada) – Public sector employment on a seasonally adjusted basis was 3.6 million in the first quarter, up 0.2% from the fourth quarter of 2011.

Employment increased by 6,000 in health and social services institutions and by 3,000 in local general government. These increases were partly offset by small declines in government business enterprises, federal general government and school boards.

The three levels of general government (federal, provincial and territorial, and local) accounted for 38.1% of total public sector employment in the first quarter. Educational institutions represented 29.2%, followed by health and social service institutions (23.9%) and government business enterprises (8.8%).

Public sector employees represented 20.2% of total employment in Canada in the first quarter, unchanged since the third quarter of 2011. This proportion has been slowly declining since its peak (20.6%) in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Total public sector wages and salaries increased 0.9% between the first quarter of 2011 and first quarter of 2012.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.