NOC 2021 · 63201 · TEER 3
Butchers - retail and wholesale
Unit group 63201 of the National Occupational Classification, 2021 Version 1.0.
What this group covers
Butchers prepare standard and specialty cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments. They are employed in supermarkets, grocery stores, butcher shops and fish stores or may be self-employed. Butchers who are supervisors or heads of departments are included in this unit group. Apprentices are also included in this unit group.
Example job titles
As Statistics Canada publishes them. Yours may be worded differently and still belong here.
- apprentice butcher - retail or wholesale
- butcher - butcher shop
- butcher - delicatessen
- butcher - retail or wholesale
- butcher - wholesale
- butcher apprentice
- butcher assistant
- grocery store butcher
- head butcher - retail
- head butcher - retail or wholesale
- head butcher - wholesale
- retail butcher
- supermarket butcher
What it pays, and where it is hiring
Job Bank publishes a wage estimate and a three-year employment outlook for each occupation, region by region. Both are below as published — where an estimate is missing from the source it is missing here too, because the alternative is inventing one.
Across Canada
$20.00 an hour
Low $15.25, high $28.00
Where it pays most
- Vancouver Island and Coast · British Columbia$24.26
- Kootenay · British Columbia$24.24
- Lower Mainland · British Columbia$23.69
- Thompson--Okanagan · British Columbia$23.69
- Toronto · Ontario$23.00
Economic regions only. A province’s figure is an average over the regions inside it, so including one would rank a province above its own best region and read as a finding.
By province and territory
| Where | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Prince Edward Island | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Nova Scotia | $19.72 | $16.50 – $26.39 | Undetermined |
| New Brunswick | $18.75 | $15.65 – $31.85 | Moderate |
| Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Limited |
| Ontario | $21.75 | $17.60 – $29.00 | Good |
| Manitoba | $17.00 | $16.00 – $23.00 | Limited |
| Saskatchewan | $19.16 | $16.85 – $27.39 | Good |
| Alberta | $22.00 | $17.00 – $27.00 | Moderate |
| British Columbia | $24.23 | $19.10 – $32.49 | Limited |
| Yukon Territory | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Northwest Territories | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Nunavut | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
By economic region
The 41 economic regions where Job Bank publishes a wage or a rated outlook, of 72.
| Where | Province | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annapolis Valley | Nova Scotia | $19.68 | $16.51 – $23.16 | Undetermined |
| Halifax | Nova Scotia | $19.40 | $16.50 – $22.55 | Undetermined |
| Campbellton--Miramichi | New Brunswick | $19.18 | $17.24 – $24.02 | Moderate |
| Moncton--Richibucto | New Brunswick | $19.52 | $18.12 – $25.51 | Undetermined |
| Edmundston--Woodstock | New Brunswick | $19.01 | $17.33 – $23.18 | Moderate |
| Gaspésie--Îles-de-la-Madeleine | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Limited |
| Bas-Saint-Laurent | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Very limited |
| Capitale-Nationale | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Moderate |
| Chaudière-Appalaches | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Limited |
| Estrie | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Limited |
| Centre-du-Québec | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Moderate |
| Montérégie | Quebec | $19.00 | $17.00 – $24.50 | Limited |
| Montréal | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Limited |
| Laval | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Limited |
| Lanaudière | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Moderate |
| Laurentides | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Limited |
| Outaouais | Quebec | $21.19 | $16.37 – $23.42 | Limited |
| Abitibi-Témiscamingue | Quebec | $20.00 | $16.10 – $26.00 | Limited |
| Mauricie | Quebec | $20.51 | $18.23 – $25.80 | Limited |
| Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean | Quebec | $21.65 | $19.00 – $23.50 | Limited |
| Côte-Nord | Quebec | Not published | Not published | Limited |
| Nord-du-Québec | Quebec | Not published | Not published | Limited |
| Ottawa | Ontario | $20.00 | $17.60 – $26.00 | Good |
| Kingston--Pembroke | Ontario | $20.87 | $17.60 – $26.79 | Good |
| Muskoka--Kawarthas | Ontario | $22.17 | $19.31 – $28.17 | Very good |
| Toronto | Ontario | $23.00 | $17.60 – $29.00 | Good |
| Kitchener--Waterloo--Barrie | Ontario | $21.39 | $18.63 – $25.12 | Good |
| Hamilton--Niagara Peninsula | Ontario | $21.75 | $17.60 – $29.00 | Good |
| London | Ontario | $22.08 | $19.24 – $29.11 | Good |
| Windsor--Sarnia | Ontario | $21.32 | $19.20 – $30.20 | Good |
| Stratford--Bruce Peninsula | Ontario | $21.75 | $17.60 – $29.00 | Undetermined |
| Northeast | Ontario | $21.26 | $18.51 – $23.93 | Good |
| Winnipeg | Manitoba | $17.00 | $16.00 – $23.00 | Undetermined |
| Saskatoon--Biggar | Saskatchewan | $19.23 | $16.75 – $25.93 | Good |
| Lethbridge--Medicine Hat | Alberta | $22.00 | $17.00 – $27.00 | Moderate |
| Calgary | Alberta | Not published | Not published | Moderate |
| Edmonton | Alberta | $22.00 | $17.00 – $27.00 | Moderate |
| Vancouver Island and Coast | British Columbia | $24.26 | $20.50 – $30.09 | Limited |
| Lower Mainland | British Columbia | $23.69 | $19.27 – $30.09 | Moderate |
| Thompson--Okanagan | British Columbia | $23.69 | $19.29 – $28.91 | Undetermined |
| Kootenay | British Columbia | $24.24 | $19.74 – $28.06 | Undetermined |
Job Bank rates employment prospects for each occupation in each economic region from very good to very limited over 2025–2027, and says “undetermined” where it has not got enough to rate. It is an assessment of prospects, not a count of vacancies.
The estimates on this page come from Labour Force Survey (2023-2024) · Small Area Estimation (2024) · Employment Insurance Survey Data (2023-2024).
Job Bank publishes an estimate for 24,364 of the 44,376 occupation-and-place pairs in this release. The rest are suppressed rather than modelled, and appear here as not published.
Wage estimates from the 2025 Wages release, revised 19 November 2025; employment outlooks from 2025-2027 Employment Outlooks - NOC 2021, released 8 December 2025. Both are updated annually. Estimates for different regions come from different surveys, so comparing two regions is exactly as sound as Job Bank’s own regional comparison and no more.
Source: Statistics Canada — National Occupational Classification 2021 V1.0; Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wages; Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank 3-year employment outlooks. Data current as of 13 August 2026. NOC 2021 Version 1.0. The classification is versioned rather than dated — IRCC moved to it in November 2022, and a new version would be a new classification rather than an update.