With job creation on Prince Edward Island stagnant over the last nine months, and the workforce continuing to grow with the population, the province’s unemployment rate is rising.
Statistics Canada released its June Labour Force Survey Friday morning. The unemployment rate was up almost a full percentage point, to 8.0 per cent.
Employment on the Island increased through most of 2023, starting in January with 84,500 jobs and climbing to 92,100 in September.
There have been some ups and downs since, with numbers falling as low as 91,200 in November and reaching as high as 92,600 in April. But in June of this year, jobs were back to 92,100, the same number as September.
In the meantime, the number of people working or looking for work rose from 98,500, with 6,600 unemployed, to 100,100 and 8,000 unemployed.
“Some of this is due to a slowing economy,” said Atlantic Economic Council economist Fred Bergman.
“This is what the Bank of Canada kind of wanted when it increased interest rates to cool the economy, and cool inflation even more so.”
