March 10, 2000
(Human Resources and Employment)

Province continues year over year employment growth

February marked the 30th month since January 1997 that Newfoundland and Labrador reported year over year employment gains according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada.

For the month of February the province experienced an employment increase of 0.9 per cent as compared to the same time period last year. These gains come on the heels of very strong employment growth in 1999 - 5.5 per cent for the year and 5.6 per cent for the month of February 1999. Last month�s gains can be attributed to increases in employment at Terra Nova, fish processing, retail trade and other service industries.

The strength of employment growth over the past three years has increased the confidence of workers in the province and prompted many more people to seek employment. This trend continued in February as the province�s labour force grew by 3.2 per cent as compared to February 1999. Because the labour force growth was larger than the employment growth, the unemployment rate increased by 1.9 percentage points from last February.

"Our latest employment increase indicates the province is still moving in a positive economic direction and building on the strong gains achieved last year," said Julie Bettney, Minister of Human Resources and Employment. "Increased confidence in job availability has led to a higher participation rate in the labour market which accounts for the increase in the unemployment rate."

While Minister Bettney was happy to report the year over year employment gains, she also noted that the province did see a marginal decrease in employment on a seasonally adjusted basis of 0.2 per cent as compared to January 2000. Minister Bettney pointed out that this is not unusual for this time of year in our seasonal economy and that the slight employment decrease in February does not diminish the long term employment gains made by the province.

Media contact: Marcia Porter, Communications, (709) 729-4062.

2000 03 10                                                         1:33 p.m.