(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s health-care industry can take much of the credit for helping buoy the nation’s labor market during a time of global deceleration.
Over the past five years, health care added 249,000 jobs, about a fifth of the total and the largest show of strength among 16 industries in a ZipRecruiter analysis of labor market data from Statistics Canada. Professional and business services and the transportation industry were next highest, accounting for a combined 353,000 new positions.
Canada’s job market continues to be a bright spot in an economy that has otherwise seen mixed signals this year. The statistics agency will release its labor force survey for September on Friday, and economists expect job growth to cool to 20,800, after a stellar gain in August of 81,100.
When it comes to wage growth, which has been sluggish overall, workers in management occupations have seen the fastest increases over the past five years, according to the ZipRecruiter study. Wage growth in the business, sales and management sectors topped 12%, versus 7% in the health industry.