October Labour Market: Newfoundland & Labrador

The above LFS (Stats Can) results were just released:

Seasonally adjusted employment grew by almost 2 thousand in the month which is more than it had in the previous 12 months. Due to the small sample size of the LFS, employment figures seem to bounce around a lot and therefore vewers should not read too much into this increase. What is probably true is that employment is growing slowly say less than 1 percent per year.

Confusing to most people is that when Statistics Canada says that employment in the Province grew by say 1% then it may not be. What is correct is to write that "employment of full-time residents grew by 1%." Many of these employees are working in other provinces such as Alberta. Therefore, we can expect to see our "employment" fall in the coming months as the North American recession passes through other provinces to the west of us.

Unemployment rates have increased to 13.7% (seasonally adjusted). Commentators always note how the rate here is more than double the national average. Poor us! The reality is that this high rate simply reflects the rural nature of our economy with seasonal labour markets. This seasonality is supported by the regional extended benefits of our Employment Insurance program. While some may criticize the program for supporting unemployment, the flip side is that it allows many people to live in the rural parts of the Province at a higher standard of living than might otherwise be the case.

A final note is that while the monthly LFS provides valuable labour market inforamtion for the Bank of Canada and Department of Finance officials it does little to help people understand the nature of labour markets in Atlantic Canada. In fact, it is misleading.