Labour Force Survey Monthly

Labour Force Survey, November 2023

released December 1, 2023

Prince Edward Island Employment

Unemployment Rate By Province (seasonally adjusted, in percentage)

Month	Can	NL	PE	NS	NB	QC	ON	MB	SK	AB	BC
November 2023	5.8	10.0	8.1	6.8	6.4	5.2	6.1	4.9	5.1	5.9	5.3
October 2023	5.7	10.0	6.2	6.6	6.6	4.9	6.2	5.2	4.4	5.8	5.4
November 2022	5.1	10.4	7.4	5.7	7.2	3.9	5.7	4.2	4.5	5.7	4.4
Year-over-year change (pp)	0.7	-0.4	0.7	1.1	-0.8	1.3	0.4	0.7	0.6	0.2	0.9
Monthly change (pp)	0.1	0.0	1.9	0.2	-0.2	0.3	-0.1	-0.3	0.7	0.1	-0.1

Summary

Statistics Canada’s LFS shows P.E.I.’s seasonally adjusted employment in November totaled 91,000, an increase of 8,200 from one year ago and down 1,300 from October 2023. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was up 0.7 percentage points from November 2022 to 8.1 per cent, up 1.9 percentage points from last month. The total labour force totaled 99,000 in November, up 9,600 (10.7 per cent) compared to November 2022 and up 600 (0.6 per cent) compared to October 2023. The participation rate increased from 67.2 per cent in October to 67.4 per cent in November.

The year-over-year increase in employment was due to an increase of 7,500 (10.6 per cent) in full-time employment, while part-time employment increased by 700 (5.8 per cent).¹ Full-time employment reached an all-time high of 79,600 in September. The services sector saw an increase of 5,600 as compared to November 2022, while the goods-producing sector increased by 2,600 over the same period (see table below for year-over-year employment gains and losses by industry).

Employment gains (+)/ losses (-) between November 2022 and November 2023 occurred in the following sectors on Prince Edward Island¹:

Goods-producing sector	2,600		Service-providing sector	5,600
Agriculture	1,400		Trade (Retail/Wholesale):	100
Other Primary Industries	100		Transport & Warehousing:	1,300
Manufacturing	300		Finance, Insurance, Real Estate:	1,100
Construction	800		Business Services:	-1,200
Utilities	200		Professional, Scientific and Technical:	-200
			Educational Services:	800
			Health & Social Services:	2,200
			Public Administration:	-700
			Information, Culture and Recreation:	-100
			Accommodation & Food services:	1,900
			Other Services:	400

The number of unemployed persons in November on Prince Edward Island was 8,000, up 1,900 from one month ago and up 1,400 as compared to November 2022. Long-term unemployment—the number of people who had been continuously unemployed for 27 weeks or more—was 600 in November, down from 900 in October. Expressed as a proportion of the total labour force, long-term unemployment was 0.6 per cent in November, down from 0.9 per cent in October.

PEI Unemployment Rate (Seasonally Adjusted)

According to the Labour Force Survey, year-over-year growth in PEI’s population aged 15 years and older has been at 3.0 per cent or higher since February 2022. The employment rate—the proportion of the population aged 15 years and older who are employed—can help assess whether employment growth is keeping pace with population growth. In November, PEI’s employment rate fell 1.0 percentage point to 62.0 per cent, following a decrease of 0.4 percentage points in October. The employment rate in November was up 3.2 percentage points from November 2022 (58.8 per cent).

The three-month moving average unemployment rate used by the Employment Insurance program for the Charlottetown region was 5.1 per cent in November, up from 5.0 per cent in October. The minimum draw period and the hours needed to qualify remain at 14 weeks and 700 hours for this region. The rate in the PEI region in November was 9.4 per cent, up from 9.1 per cent in October. The minimum draw period and the hours needed to qualify remain at 20 weeks and 560 hours for this region. For more information, please refer to Employment Insurance (EI) - Canada.ca.

NATIONAL

Nationally, employment rose by 24,900 in November (0.1 per cent) as compared to October. The unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 5.8 per cent, as there were more people looking for work. At the industry level, employment in the goods-producing sector increased by 38,300 (0.9 per cent), while employment in the services-producing sector decreased by 13,400 (-0.1 per cent). Provincially, seasonally adjusted employment in November increased in New Brunswick, while P.E.I. saw the only notable decline. There was little change in other provinces.

National average hourly wages for employees rose 4.8 per cent ($1.57) on a year-over-year basis in November. By province, year-over-year wage growth was highest in November in British Columbia (6.8 per cent; $2.28), Nova Scotia (6.4 per cent; $1.80), New Brunswick (6.3 per cent; $1.75), and Ontario (5.4 per cent; $1.81). Prince Edward Island saw the lowest year-over-year increase in the average hourly wage at 2.1 per cent or $0.59.

Unadjusted for seasonality, the national three-month moving average unemployment rate in November was 5.3 per cent. The rate for population groups designated as visible minorities was 7.1 per cent. Visible minority groups for which the rate was higher than the average were Arab Canadians at 10.1 per cent, West Asian Canadians at 9.5 per cent, Black Canadians at 9.4 per cent, and Latin American Canadians at 7.5 per cent.

Canada Employment

 

¹ Components may not sum to total due to rounding

Notes:
1.    The LFS estimates for November are for the week of November 5 to 11, 2023.
2.    The LFS estimates are based on a sample and are therefore subject to sampling variability. For more information, see the Statistics Canada publication "Interpreting Monthly Changes in Employment from the Labour Force Survey."
3.    The next release of the LFS will be on January 5, 2024.

Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey Estimates, releasedDecember 1, 2023.

For more information and links to tables, refer to the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey release for November 2023.

Related downloads for this release:

Monthly Labour Force Survey report - PDF (100KB)