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Employment numbers continue to climb in the NWT, highest in the country again

The NWT continues to have the highest employment rate in the country, exceeding pre-pandemic numbers for June.

The NWT’s employment rate sits at 69.9 per cent, seasonally adjusted, for June the highest among provinces and territories in Canada — the Yukon is second highest at 67.8 per cent with Nunavut the lowest at 48.3 per cent.

The national average rose to 60 per cent during June.

The NWT’s unemployment rate was also the lowest in the country, at 4.4 per cent.

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The east coast was home to the highest unemployment rates, with Newfoundland & Labrador 13.8 per cent, New Brunswick 9.7 per cent and Prince Edward Island 9.3 per cent. The national unemployment rate was 5.5 per cent.

The NWT has seen its employment rate rise while its unemployment rate drops continually since August, when employment reached a peak in the pandemic.

Jeff Barrichello, economic statistician with the NWT Bureau of Statistics, says the higher employment rate around this time of year can be attributed to seasonal employment, with students returning home to jobs and firefighters hired in the summer to manage wildfires in the territory.

Youth unemployment was also the highest it has been in years. The employment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 years rose by 19.2 percentage points to 53.7 per cent in June 2021

In total, there are 2,700 more employed people working in the territory in June of this year compared to last.

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The services-producing industry is the biggest contributor to that, with transportation and  warehousing and educational services  accounting for 1,600 of those newly employed people. 

Meanwhile, employment in the construction and manufacturing industries declined by 300 persons each. 

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