Here's which job sector pays the highest weekly wages in Canada — and the one that pays the least

New data from Statistics Canada has revealed the highest earning job sectors in the country according to average weekly wages for March 2026.

The findings, which use data from the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), show that average wages are highest in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector, where employees earned an average of $2,509.13 per week in March 2026.

This is a 3.7 per cent wage increase since March 2025, when average weekly earnings came in at $2,419.49 for this sector.

The data notes Canadians evaluated in the findings worked an average of 33.4 hours per week in March 2026.

Other top-paying sectors include utilities (which refers to electric, gas, and water companies) and information and cultural industries (such as motion picture, sound recording, telecommunications, broadcasting and publishing), both of which saw average weekly wages of more than $2,000 in March 2026.

At the other end of the spectrum, the accommodation and food services sector saw the lowest average weekly wages at $538.98 per week — a 5.4 per cent increase on March 2025.

The retail trade and arts, entertainment and recreation were the only other two sectors that saw employees earn less than $1,000 per week on average, at $773.39 and $791.10 respectively.

The utilities sector has seen the biggest wage growth since March 2025, at 9.6 per cent, followed by information and cultural industries at 7 per cent.

Three sectors saw average weekly wages decrease between March 2025 and March 2026: real estate, rental and leasing (-9.2 per cent), forestry, logging and support (-2.4 per cent) and management of companies and enterprises (0.8 per cent).

This data was released on May 28, one day before StatCan reported that Canada had slipped into a technical recession.

StatCan also looked at the monthly change in payroll employment for each sector — meaning the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer.

Of the 20 sectors listed, 11 saw payroll employment decrease from February to March 2026, though StatCan notes that the change was only statistically significant for seven of these: accommodation and food services, construction, retail, real estate, administrative and support services, forestry, logging and support, and ‘other services’ (which excludes public administration).

Of the nine sectors that saw payroll employment increase, it was only statistically significant for management of companies and enterprises and public administration.

Meanwhile, job vacancies in Canada held steady at 503,300 in March. Year over year, job vacancies were down by 3.2 per cent.

Elsewhere, StatCan also looked at the average weekly earnings for Canadians by region.

The findings showed that average wages across Canada reached $1,333 per week in March 2026, up by 3.5 per cent compared to March 2025. This follows 2.8 per cent year-over-year increase recorded in February.

At the top of the list is Nunavut, where residents earned an average of $1,874.95 per week — an increase of 7.8 per cent year-over-year.

This is followed by 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 per week in March 2026 — an increase of 7.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2025, but nearly $700 less than Nunavut’s average.

• Here's how much Canadians are earning on average — and the region where wages are highest
• What a comfortable income looks like in Canada, according to a new survey

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