Atlantic Canada continues to see employment growth during its pandemic recovery, with notable job increases in three provinces even as job gains levelled off in the rest of the country.
The number of people working in New Brunswick increased by 6,700 (up 1.8 percent) in April, surpassing the province’s pre-Covid-19 February 2020 level for the first time, according to Statistics Canada’s April Labour Force Survey.
The unemployment rate in New Brunswick also fell by 0.7 percentage points in April, to 9.1 percent.
Moncton saw its unemployment rate drop lower than the national average on a seasonally adjusted basis, to 5 percent in April, down from 5.7 in the last survey.
Saint John also saw a dip in its unemployment rate, by 0.3 percent over March, to 7.1 percent.
Nova Scotia saw its own increase, netting 5,900 jobs, an increase of 1.2 percent over March, while Newfoundland and Labrador also recorded employment gains in April, reporting an increase of 2,500 jobs, up 1.1 percent over the previous month.
Both provinces also recorded unemployment rate declines (-2.1 percentage points, to 10.8 percent, in Newfoundland and Labrador and -0.5 percentage points, to 6.0 percent, in Nova Scotia).
Halifax’s unemployment rate was 6.0 in April, improving over March’s 6.5 percent, seasonally adjusted.
The unemployment rate for St. John’s dropped 2.9 percent from March to April, to 10.8 percent.
Prince Edward Island’s unemployment rate was unchanged in April, at 7.5 percent.
Employment changed little in April after two consecutive months of growth across Canada, with the national unemployment rate edging down one-tenth of a percentage point, to 5.2 percent.
Increases in employment–in professional, scientific and technical services and public administration–were offset by declines in construction and retail trade, according to StatsCan.
Canada’s employment recovery continues to climb, though at a steadier pace. Source: Statistics Canada
The employment rate, which is the proportion of the population that is employed, was unchanged, at 61.9 percent.
The labour market has been tight in recent months and there have been increases in full-time work. StatsCan noted a portion of that tightening has been a decrease in the proportion of part-time workers reporting that they would prefer full-time employment.
The involuntary part-time employment rate fell to 15.7 percent in April, the lowest level on record.
It showed the involuntary part-time rate was up over the first 18 months of the pandemic, peaking at 26.5 percent in August 2020, as many workers faced challenges finding full-time jobs.
At the onset of the pandemic, there was a sudden shift in the distribution of employment by wage level, as a result of the unprecedented employment impacts of the initial economic shutdown.
StatsCan’s April Labour Force Survey indicates that change has continued.
As of April, there were 1.3 million (23.4 percent) fewer employees with hourly wages of less than $20, compared with April 2019.
StatsCan says that group of workers accounted for just over one-quarter of all employees (25.9 percent) in April 2022, down from more than one-third (35.5 percent) in April 2019. Those numbers have not been seasonally adjusted.
As of April, there were 1.3 million (-23.4 percent) fewer employees with hourly wages of less than $20.00 compared with April 2019. Source: Statistics Canada.
More recent results from the Job Vacancy and Wage Surveys suggest the three-year drop in the number of employees earning less than $20 per hour is the result of decreased labour supply—with fewer workers available and willing to work for lower wages—rather than a drop in demand.
Both surveys showed that as of the fourth quarter of 2021, the number of vacant jobs in occupations where the average hourly wage is less than $20 was 166,000, 61.4 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2019.
In striking contrast to the situation for those earning less than $20 per hour, the number of employees earning $40 or more per hour nationally was up by 1.2 million (42.7 percent) in April 2022 compared to April 2019, an 18 percent increase from three years earlier.
While StatsCan highlights the complexity of comparing wage levels across time, it noted the three-year increase in the proportion of employees earning $40 or more per hour covers a range of factors, including wage growth; workers finding higher-paid jobs; and some self-employed workers in higher-wage industries such as professional, scientific and technical services becoming employees.
Tyler Mclean is Reporter for Huddle Today, a content sharing partner of Acadia Broadcasting
