New data from Statistics Canada has revealed the highest-paying job sectors in the country based on average weekly wages through March 2026.
The results, based on Survey of Employment, Wages and Hours (SEPH) data, show that average wages are highest in the mining and oil and gas sectors, where employees earned an average of $2,509.13 per week in March 2026.
That’s a 3.7% increase in wages since March 2025, when the average weekly earnings in the sector were $2,419.49.
The data notes that Canadians measured in the results worked an average of 33.4 hours per week in March 2026.
Other highest-paying sectors include utilities (which include electric, gas, and water companies) and information and cultural industries (such as film, recording, telecommunications, broadcasting, and publishing), both of which had average weekly wages above $2,000 in March 2026.
At the other end of the spectrum, the accommodation and food service sector had the lowest average weekly wage at $538.98 per week, up 5.4% from March 2025.
Retail and Arts, Entertainment and Leisure were the only two other sectors where employees on average earned less than $1,000 per week ($773.39 and $791.10, respectively).
The utilities sector saw the biggest wage increase since March 2025 at 9.6 percent, followed by the information and cultural industries at 7 percent.
Between March 2025 and March 2026, average weekly wages declined in three sectors: real estate, rentals and leasing (-9.2%), forestry, logging and support (-2.4%), and company and business management (0.8%).
The data was released on May 28, the day before StatCan reported Canada had fallen into a technical recession.
StatCan also looked at monthly changes in wages for each sector, which is the number of employees receiving wages and benefits from their employer.
Of the 20 sectors listed, 11 saw a decline in employment from February to March 2026, although StatCan notes that the change was statistically significant for only seven of them: accommodation and food services, construction, retail trade, real estate, administrative and support services, forestry, logging and support, and “other services” (excluding government).
Of the nine sectors that saw employment growth, it was only statistically significant for business management and public administration.
Meanwhile, job openings in Canada remained steady at 503,300 in March. Year-over-year, job openings fell 3.2%.
Elsewhere, StatCan also looked at the average weekly earnings of Canadians by region.
The results showed that Average wages across Canada reached $1,333 per week in March 2026, up 3.5 per cent from March 2025. This follows a 2.8 percent year-on-year increase recorded in February.
Topping the list is Nunavut, where residents earn an average of $1,874.95 per week, up 7.8% from last year.
This is followed by the Northwest Territories ($1,741.07), Yukon ($1,520.39), Alberta ($1,371.07), Ontario ($1,368.71), British Columbia ($1,348.36), Newfoundland and Labrador ($1,290.53), Saskatchewan ($1,288.82), Quebec. ($1,283.60), New Brunswick ($1,231.77), Manitoba ($1,214.49) and Nova Scotia ($1,210.83).
At the bottom of the list is Prince Edward Island, where residents earned an average of $1,177.97 a week in March 2026, up 7.7 per cent from the same period in 2025 but nearly $700 less than the Nunavut average.
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