N.B. Sees ‘Most Complete Employment Recovery’ Among Provinces: Statistics Canada
New Brunswick saw “the most complete employment recovery of all provinces to date,” according to Statistics Canada’s July Labour Force Survey.
Employment in New Brunswick was at 96.6 percent of its February level, before the Covid-19 restrictions came into place. The province was among the first to start reopening and easing restrictions. Canada’s employment is at 93 percent of the February level.
Unemployment in the province stood at 9.8 percent in July, down 0.1 points, while 349,000 people were employed, down 0.5 percent.
The Moncton census metropolitan area (CMA) saw employment increase 1.5 percent from June to July – 81,300 people were employed last month, compared to 80,300 in June. Unemployment also fell 8.8 percent.
In the Saint John CMA, employment increased 5 percent from June to July – 60,500 people were working last month, compared to 57,600 in June. Unemployment dropped by 12 percent in July.
In Nova Scotia, employment increased 0.8 percent to 437,000, or 92.7% of its February level. The unemployment rate fell by 2.2 percentage points to 10.8%.
Halifax saw employment increase 4.2 percent between June and July, while unemployment fell 5.1 percent. In June, 216,600 people were employed. That increased to 225,600 in July.
The July survey includes data from the week of July 12-18, four months after jurisdictions began economic shutdowns due to the global pandemic.
Overall, unemployment in Canada stood at 10.9 percent, down 1.4 points. Meanwhile, employment increased 2.4 percent to 17.85 million.
Between February and April, 5.5 million workers in the country were affected by shutdowns. Employment dropped by 3 million, and COVID-related absences from work increased by 2.5 million. By the week of July 12 to July 18, the total number of affected workers has fallen to 2.3 million.
From February to April, part-time jobs were significantly more affected than full-time jobs. Last month, a bulk of the gains in employment were because of an increase in part-time work, which went up 11.3 percent, while full-time work only increased by 0.5 percent.
Employment in both the service and good-producing sectors has bounced back, reaching 93 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
The July survey also includes information on the labour market conditions of population groups designated as visible minorities. This is the first time such information has been made available.
The data shows the unemployment rate for South Asians (17.8 percent), Arab (17.3 percent) and Black (16.8 percent) Canadians were higher than the national average of 11.3 percent. The unemployment rate for those who are not a visible minority and not Aboriginal was 9.3 percent.