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Amid a postal workers’ strike in November, payrolls declined, after several months of holding steady, according to Statistics Canada.

On Friday, the national statistical agency reported that the number of employees that were working in November dropped by 56,100, driven largely by strike action in the transportation sector, which recorded a payroll drop of 38,200.

Excluding the transportation sector, payrolls were still down 17,900 in November, StatCan said, as six other sectors also recorded employment declines in the month, including retail trade. These declines were partly offset by gains in three sectors, and payrolls were flat in 10 other sectors, it noted.

Alongside the decline payrolls, the number of job vacancies was little changed in November, at 518,200, StatCan reported. This followed a drop in vacancies in October.

On a year-over-year basis, the number of vacancies has declined in 15 out of 20 industry sectors.

The job vacancy rate — the ratio of open jobs to total labour demand — remained unchanged at 2.9% in the month, but a rise in unemployment resulted in the ratio of unemployed workers to job vacancies edging up to 2.9 unemployed workers for every open job, up from 2.8 in October.

Average weekly earnings were also flat in November, after recording a 0.5% increase in October. On a year-over-year basis, earnings were up 5.0% in November, which was down from 5.2% in October.