Average weekly earnings by Canadians in non-farm jobs increased 4.4% in October from a year earlier, Statistics Canada said Thursday.
Earnings averaged $863.33 in the month, the federal agency reported, while payrolls were up 1.7% to 14.74 million from a year earlier.
Total hours worked increased 2.4% year-over-year, though there was little change from September. Employees worked an average of 32.9 hours a week in October, a figure that hasn't changed for six months.
"The pace of growth in earnings has been increasing in recent months. October was the third consecutive month in which the year-over-year growth rate was higher than 4%, the agency said. "Prior to this period, the increase surpassed 3% for four months in a row. For most of 2009, the rate of growth was below 2%."
A 0.9% increase in the average hours worked each week between October 2009 and October 2010 accounted for some of the increase in weekly earnings, the agency said, with the rest being attributable to factors including wage growth, changes in the composition of employment, changes in occupations and job experience.
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