Province experiences slight decrease in employment

Newfoundland and Labrador experienced a decrease in employment last month according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada.

Employment decreased by 1.2 per cent to 214,300 persons in October as compared to 216,800 for the month last year. In addition the unemployment rate rose by 2.2 percentage points to 16.2 per cent. In addition to lower employment, growth in the labour force of 1.5 per cent also contributed to this increase.

"Fluctuations in employment numbers from time to time are to be expected," said Ralph Wiseman, Minister of Human Resources and Employment. "This is only the first month since December 2000 that we have seen a decrease in employment and this is the second highest October ever in terms of employment. The long term trend is positive with 2002 shaping up as a good year as witnessed by year-to-date employment growth of 1.6 per cent."

Employment losses were concentrated in the goods sector. On an industry basis, losses were recorded in manufacturing, construction, retail trade and education services.

On a seasonally adjusted basis employment stood at 211,300, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points while the unemployment rate was 18.3 per cent. Seasonally adjusted data looks at patterns of employment change within the current year from one month to the next, whereas the actual data compares employment this year to employment last year.

Media contact: Simon N. Lono, Director of Communications, (709) 729- 4062.

2002 11 08                                        3:35 p.m.