Labour Force Survey Monthly
Labour Force Survey, April 2023
released May 5, 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 |
| April 2023 | 5.0 | 10.1 | 7.1 | 6.3 | 6.1 | 4.1 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 5.9 | 5.0 |
| March 2023 | 5.0 | 10.3 | 6.6 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 5.7 | 4.5 |
| April 2022 | 5.3 | 11.7 | 8.0 | 6.0 | 6.4 | 4.3 | 5.4 | 4.8 | 5.4 | 6.1 | 4.8 |
| Year-over-year change (pp) | -0.3 | -1.6 | -0.9 | 0.3 | -0.3 | -0.2 | -0.5 | 0.0 | -0.6 | -0.2 | 0.2 |
| Monthly change (pp) | 0.0 | -0.2 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | -0.1 | -0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
Summary
Statistics Canada’s LFS shows P.E.I.’s seasonally adjusted employment in April totaled 89,500, a new all-time high for employment on PEI. This is an increase of 5,000 from one year ago and up 2,200 from March 2023. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was down 0.9 percentage points from April 2022 to 7.1 per cent. This is up 0.5 percentage points from last month, as there were more people looking for work. The total labour force has increased by 4,600 (5.0 per cent) compared to April 2022 and is up by 2,800 (3.0 per cent) compared to March 2023. The labour force reached 96,300 in April, also an all-time high. The participation rate increased from 65.6 per cent in March to 67.2 per cent in April.
The year-over-year increase in employment was due to an increase of 3,900 (5.5 per cent) in full-time employment, while part-time employment increased by 1,100 (8.4 per cent).1 The services sector saw an increase of 5,600 as compared to April 2022, while the goods-producing sector decreased by 600 over the same period (see table below for year-over-year employment gains and losses by industry).
Employment gains (+)/ losses (-) between April 2022 and April 2023 occurred in the following sectors on Prince Edward Island1:
| Goods-producing sector | -600 | Service-providing sector | 5,600 | |
| Agriculture | 500 | Trade (Retail/Wholesale): | -900 | |
| Other Primary Industries | -900 | Transport & Warehousing: | -200 | |
| Manufacturing | -300 | Finance, Insurance, Real Estate: | 500 | |
| Construction | 100 | Business Services: | 400 | |
| Utilities | 0 | Professional, Scientific and Technical: | -1,000 | |
| Educational Services: | 1,200 | |||
| Health & Social Services: | 2,400 | |||
| Public Administration: | 1,400 | |||
| Information, Culture and Recreation: | 400 | |||
| Accommodation & Food services: | 800 | |||
| Other Services: | 600 |
The number of unemployed persons in April on Prince Edward Island was 6,800, up 600 from one month ago and down 500 compared to April 2022. Long-term unemployment—the number of people who had been continuously unemployed for 27 weeks or more—was 700 in April, up from 600 in March. Expressed as a proportion of the total labour force, long-term unemployment increased from 0.6 per cent in March to 0.7 per cent in April.
PEI Unemployment Rate (Seasonally Adjusted)
The three-month moving average unemployment rate used by the Employment Insurance program for the Charlottetown region was 4.8 per cent in April, down from 5.5 per cent in March. The minimum draw period and hours needed to qualify remain at 14 weeks and 700 hours for this region. The rate in the PEI region in April was 8.5 per cent, down from 8.7 per cent in March. The minimum draw period and hours needed to qualify remain at 18 weeks and 595 hours for this region. For more information, please refer to Employment Insurance (EI) - Canada.ca.
Nationally, employment rose by 41,000 in April (+0.2 per cent) as compared to March. The unemployment rate remained at 5.0 per cent for the fifth consecutive month. At the industry level, employment in the goods-producing sector increased by 6,300 (0.2 per cent), while employment in the services-producing sector increased by 35,200 (0.2 per cent). Provincially, seasonally adjusted employment in April increased notably in Ontario and Prince Edward Island, while Manitoba saw a notable decline. There was little change in the other provinces.
National average hourly wages for employees rose 5.2 per cent ($1.66) on a year-over-year basis in April. By province, year-over-year wage growth was highest in April in British Columbia (6.3 per cent; $2.01), Quebec (5.8 per cent; $1.77), Ontario (5.5 per cent; $1.81), and Manitoba (4.5 per cent; $1.26). The average hourly wage in Prince Edward Island increased by 3.5 per cent, or $0.94, on a year-over-year basis.
Unadjusted for seasonality, the national three-month moving average unemployment rate in April was 5.3 per cent. The rate for population groups designated as visible minorities was 6.2 per cent. Visible minority groups for which the rate is higher than the average were Arab Canadians at 8.5 per cent, Black Canadians at 7.7 per cent, West Asian Canadians at 7.7 per cent, and Latin American Canadians at 7.0 per cent.
Canada Employment
1 Components may not sum to total due to rounding
Notes:
1. The LFS estimates for April are for the week of April 9 to 15, 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 June 9, 2023.
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey Estimates, released May 5, 2023.
For more information and links to tables, refer to the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey release for April 2023.
Related downloads for this release:
Monthly Labour Force Survey report - PDF (100KB)