Average weekly pay declined in Saskatoon in May

Average weekly earnings in Saskatchewan were $976 in May, down one per cent or nearly $10 a week, from $985 in April, according to Statistics Canada data released Thursday.

Payroll employment in the province was also down slightly to 475,700 in May from 475,900 in April, the federal agency said.

What: StatsCan’s survey of employment payroll, and hours is produced from a census of one million payroll deductions and sample data from 15,000 establishments. Average weekly earnings are for hourly and salaried employees, including overtime pay, based on gross taxable income before deductions. Non-farm payroll employment means hourly and salaried employees, including piece-rate and commission-only employees.

What’s up, what’s down:

“This (average weekly earnings number) is down 0.2 per cent from $978 in May 2015 and continues a prolonged slump,” said Doug Elliott, publisher of Sask Trends Monitor.

The number of payroll (non-farm) jobs in the province also declined year-over-year in May to 475,700, down 2.3 per cent from 486,700 in May 2015, a loss of 11,000 jobs,

Because there was a decline in the number of paid employees in May, aggregate weekly payrolls of $469 million were down 2.6 per cent from May 2015.

What it means:

“Earnings have declined on a yearover-year basis in six of the past 12 months,” Elliott said. “The decline is not the result of lower wage rates, which were up 2.2 per cent for the month. Instead, we are seeing lower earnings because of the increase in part-time work and less overtime for full-time workers.”

The combination of fewer hours of work and fewer payroll employees is bad news for the slumping economy and depleted provincial coffers.

“This translates into lower levels of household income, which puts downward pressure on consumer spending and tax revenues to the provincial government,” Elliott added.