The following statement was issued today by Paul Dicks, Minister of Finance and President of Treasury Board. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

Provincial economy shows healthy employment gains in first quarter

Last year the provincial economy showed a significant drop in employment that was largely related to the winding down of Hibernia construction and public sector downsizing. In contrast, I am glad to report today broadly based job gains so far this year.

During the first three months of 1997, losses of Hibernia construction jobs were more than offset by employment gains elsewhere. Job gains were realized across a wide range of industries: in primary industries which include mining, fishery, agriculture and forestry, in manufacturing which includes fish processing, and also in the service industries including the wholesale and retail trade and the finance, insurance, and real estate industries. Healthy gains were also recorded in the community, business and personal services industry which includes many sectors such as hotels, motels and restaurants which are expected to reap strong benefits from tourist activity this year.

Total employment for all industries combined was up by 1.5 per cent on average during the first three months. This was the best performance of any province east of the Manitoba border. And it was a better performance than the one per cent gain recorded nationally. Newfoundland was also the only province east of Manitoba to record a modest improvement in its unemployment rate, a decline of 0.1 percentage point, as some of the employment gains were offset by an increased number of people in the labour force. In P.E.I. and Nova Scotia the unemployment rates rose by 2.4 and 2.5 percentage points respectively.

Mr. Speaker:

This is positive news for Newfoundland and Labrador, a sign of improvement for the province. Not only are we realizing employment gains in our growing resource sector, but we are also achieving it more specifically within the tourism industry. With the sailing of The Matthew from Bristol, England only a week away, we can also look forward to further increased employment opportunities in this industry throughout the summer and fall as we celebrate Cabot 500.

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Total Employment, Newfoundland and Labrador
(thousands)

                    1996      1997      Actual Change  % Change
     January        175.2     177.1          1.9       1.0 %
     February       174.4     177.0          2.6       1.5 %
     March          174.2     177.4          3.2       1.8 %
     Year-to-date   174.6     177.2          2.6       1.5 %
     
     Source: Labour Force Survey, Statistics Canada.