Released: 2025-10-31
Real GDP by industry
August 2025
-0.3% 
(monthly change)
Real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 0.3% in August, offsetting most of July’s 0.3% expansion, with decreases in goods-producing and services-producing industries.
Chart 1
Real gross domestic product decreases in August
Goods-producing industries declined 0.6% in August, marking this aggregate’s fifth contraction since the beginning of the year. Services-producing industries edged down 0.1%, marking this aggregate’s first decline in six months, driven by contractions in transportation and warehousing and in wholesale trade.
Flight attendants’ strike impacts activity in some transportation subsectors
The transportation and warehousing sector declined 1.7% in August, more than offsetting July’s expansion, on broad-based declines in the month.
Air transportation dropped 4.6% in August, recording its largest decline since January 2022 (-46.7%), when the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the associated public health measures led to a drop in air travel.
Chart 2
Air transportation is down in August, recording its largest decline since January 2022
In August 2025, a work stoppage involving 10,000 flight attendants that began mid-month resulted in flight cancellations, impacting air transportation activity in the month. Disruptions in air transportation were also a major contributor to the decline in support activities for transportation (-1.9%), which fell for the first time in six months, marking its largest decrease since January 2022.
Pipeline transportation was down 0.7% in August, driven by lower pipeline transportation of natural gas (-2.6%), coinciding with lower exports to the United States, and with lower activity in natural gas distribution as domestic deliveries to residential, commercial and industrial customers declined in August.
Wholesale trade sector down for the first time in four months
The wholesale trade sector declined 1.2% in August, after three consecutive monthly increases.
Motor vehicle and parts wholesalers (-8.3%) led the decline in August as activity in the subsector eased, coinciding with lower exports and imports of motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts.
Food, beverage and tobacco wholesalers fell 5.2% in August, the largest monthly contraction rate since November 2022, more than offsetting the preceding two consecutive monthly increases. This contraction coincided with lower activity in food manufacturing.
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector down for the first time in three months
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction contracted 0.7% in August, partially offsetting the back-to-back increases in June and July.
The support activities for mining, and oil and gas extraction subsector (-5.0%) was down for the second time in eight months, as rigging and drilling activity contracted in August.
Mining and quarrying (except oil and gas) contracted 1.3% in August, driven by a decline in metal ore mining (-1.2%) and in coal mining (-5.1%).
Oil and gas extraction (+0.2%) tempered the decline in the sector, growing for the third month in a row in August. Oil and gas extraction (except oil sands) rose 0.2%, reflecting increased extractions of crude petroleum in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, while oil sands extraction edged up 0.1%, driven by higher synthetic crude production in August.
Utilities sector contracts as worsening drought conditions weigh on hydroelectricity generation
Chart 3
Utilities sector falls in August to its lowest level since May 2018
The utilities sector contracted 2.3% in August, due to widespread declines across all industries comprising the subsector.
Electric power generation, transmission and distribution (-2.4%) accounted for most of the decline in August, recording its sixth consecutive monthly decline, as worsening drought conditions hampered hydroelectric power generation.
Manufacturing sector contracts in August
The manufacturing sector was down 0.5% in August on broad-based declines across durable and non-durable manufacturing industries.
Durable-goods manufacturing contracted 0.8% in August, with machinery manufacturing (-2.8%) and fabricated metal product manufacturing (-2.4%) contributing the most to the contraction in the month. Primary metal manufacturing (+3.7%) tempered the decline, driven by an increase in alumina and aluminum production and processing (+9.6%), coinciding with increased exports of aluminum in the month. Exports of these products to several countries other than the United States increased during the April-to-August period.
Non-durable manufacturing decreased 0.2% with the majority of subsectors contracting in August. Food manufacturing (-1.3%) contributed the most to the decrease, followed by beverage and tobacco manufacturing (-4.7%).
Retail trade up on widespread expansions
The retail trade sector expanded 0.9%, as 8 of 12 subsectors grew in August.
Chart 4
Retail trade sector rose in August
Motor vehicle and parts dealers (+2.5%) led the growth, recording its second consecutive monthly expansion, driven in August by increases in new and used car dealers as well as automotive parts, accessories and tires retailing. A rebound in general merchandise stores (+2.1%), clothing and clothing accessories stores (+2.7%) and sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores (+6.9%) further contributed to the increase in the sector.
Chart 5
Main industrial sectors’ contribution to the percent change in gross domestic product in August
Advance estimate for real gross domestic product by industry for September 2025
Advance information indicates that real GDP increased 0.1% in September. Increases in finance and insurance, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, and manufacturing were partially offset by decreases in wholesale trade and retail trade. Owing to its preliminary nature, this estimate will be updated on November 28, 2025, with the release of the official GDP by industry estimates for September.
With this advance estimate for September, information on real GDP by industry suggests that the economy edged up 0.1% in the third quarter of 2025. The official estimate for the third quarter will be available on November 28, 2025, when the official estimates of GDP by income and expenditure are released.
Focus on Canada and the United StatesSpotlight on wood product manufacturing
In 2023, the most recent year covered by the value added in exports database, 31% of the output of the wood product manufacturing subsector was attributable to the United States, compared with 4% attributable to all other countries combined.
In late July and early August 2025, the United States announced an increase in anti-dumping and countervailing duty rates on imports of Canadian softwood lumber products. In August, the most recent month for which value added by industry estimates are available, activity in the wood product manufacturing subsector declined 1.9%, with the sawmills and wood preservation industry (-5.2%) accounting for all of the decline in the subsector.
The volume of exports of lumber and other sawmill products declined 24.2% in August.
Based on the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours, August’s employment in the wood product manufacturing subsector was essentially unchanged.
Sustainable development goals
On January 1, 2016, the world officially began implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—the United Nations’ transformative plan of action that addresses urgent global challenges over the following 15 years. The plan is based on 17 specific sustainable development goals.
The release on gross domestic product by industry is an example of how Statistics Canada supports monitoring the progress of global sustainable development goals. This release will be used to help measure the following goal:
Note to readers
Introduction of the North American Industry Classification System 2022 in the monthly real gross domestic product by industry estimates
On November 28, 2025, the monthly real gross domestic product (GDP) by industry estimates will be released on a new industry classification basis. The changes are mainly related to the incorporation of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2022, the reclassification of financial sector industries to improve alignment with sectoral accounts, the aggregation of relatively smaller industries, and the introduction of greater detail in industries where it was deemed analytically or statistically useful.
A detailed view of these changes and relevant concordance files are available on demand.
General information
Monthly data on GDP by industry at basic prices are chained volume estimates with 2017 as the reference year. This means that the data for each industry and each aggregate are obtained from a chained volume index multiplied by the industry’s value added in 2017. The monthly data are benchmarked to annually chained Fisher volume indexes of GDP obtained from the constant-price supply and use tables (SUTs) up to the latest SUT year (2021).
For the period starting in January 2022, data are derived by chaining a fixed-weight Laspeyres volume index to the prior period. The fixed weights are the 2021 industry current price estimates.
Statistics Canada also produces expenditure-based GDP estimates at market prices, which are chained quarterly based on a Fisher volume index. Due to conceptual and statistical differences, GDP by industry and GDP by expenditure percent change estimates can diverge slightly.
All data in this release are seasonally adjusted. For information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
An advance estimate of industrial production for September 2025 is available upon request.
For more information on GDP, see the video “What is Gross Domestic Product (GDP)?.”
For more information on the impact of tariffs on key economic statistics, please consult: “How tariffs are conceptually reflected in key economic statistics.”
Revisions
Each month, newly available administrative and survey data from various industries in the economy are integrated, resulting in statistical revisions. Updated and revised administrative data (including taxation statistics), new information provided by respondents to industry surveys, and standard changes to seasonal adjustment calculations are incorporated with each release.
With this release of monthly GDP by industry, revisions have been made back to January 2024.
To satisfy the opposing goals for both timeliness and accuracy, Statistics Canada regularly updates (revises) its estimates of GDP. For more information about GDP revision cycles, please consult the “Revisions to Canada’s GDP” article in the Latest Developments in the Canadian Economic Accounts (Catalogue number13-605-X).
Real-time table
Real-time table 36-10-0491-01 will be updated on November 10, 2025.
Next release
Data on real GDP by industry for September 2025 will be released on November 28, including an advance estimate for the October 2025 reference month.
Products
The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-606-G) is available.
The Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-607-X) is also available.
The Economic accounts statistics portal, accessible from the Subjects module of the Statistics Canada website, features an up-to-date portrait of national and provincial economies and their structure.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).