Labour Force Survey Monthly

Labour Force Survey, August 2024

released September 6, 2024

Prince Edward Island Employment

Unemployment Rate By Province (seasonally adjusted, in percentage)

Summary

Statistics Canada’s LFS shows P.E.I.’s seasonally adjusted employment in August totaled 92,600, a new all-time high. This is an increase of 2,600 from one year ago and up 900 from last month. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.2 percent, up 0.3 percentage points as compared to August 2023 and down 0.7 percentage points from last month. The total labour force totaled 100,900 in August, up 3,200 (3.3 percent) compared to August 2023 and up 200 (0.2 percent) compared to July 2024. The participation rate was 66.5 percent in August, down 0.1 percentage point from July.

The year-over-year increase in employment was due to an increase of 900 (1.2 percent) in full-time employment, while part-time employment rose by 1,700 (13.2 percent).  Full-time employment totaled 78,000 in August, while part-time employment was 14,600. The services sector saw an increase of 3,400 as compared to August 2023, while the goods-producing sector fell by 800 over the same period (see table below for year-over-year employment gains and losses by industry), to total 69,800 and 22,800 respectively.

Employment gains (+)/ losses (-) between August 2023 and August 2024 occurred in the following sectors on Prince Edward Island¹:

The number of unemployed persons in August on Prince Edward Island was 8,300, down 700 from one month ago and up 600 as compared to August 2023. Long-term unemployment—the number of people who had been continuously unemployed for 27 weeks or more—was 400 in August, down from 900 in July. Expressed as a proportion of the total labour force, long-term unemployment was 0.4 percent in August, down from 0.9 percent in July.

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 percent or higher since February 2022 and 4.0 or higher since September 2023. 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 August, PEI’s employment rate was 61.0 percent, down 0.8 percentage points as compared to August 2023. This indicates that growth in the population aged 15 years and over has outpaced growth in employment year-over-year. The employment rate was at an all-time high of 63.1 percent in September 2023.

The three-month moving average unemployment rate used by the Employment Insurance program for the Charlottetown region was 7.3 percent in August, up from 6.9 percent in July. The minimum draw period increases from 15 to 17 weeks and the hours needed to qualify decreases from 665 to 630 hours for this region. The rate in the PEI region in August was 9.1 percent, up from 8.7 percent in July. The minimum draw period increases from 18 to 20 weeks and the hours needed to qualify decreases from 595 to 560 hours for this region. For more information, please refer to Employment Insurance (EI) - Canada.ca.

NATIONAL

Nationally, employment was little changed in August 2024 as compared to July and the unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.6 percent.

At the industry level, employment in the goods-producing sector increased by 2,700 (0.1 percent), while employment in the services-producing sector rose by 19,500 (0.1 percent). Provincially, seasonally adjusted employment in August increased in Alberta (0.5 percent), Nova Scotia (1.0 percent), Manitoba (0.6 percent), and Prince Edward Island (1.0 percent), with a notable decrease in Newfoundland and Labrador (-1.0 percent). There was little change in other provinces.

National average hourly wages for employees rose 5.0 percent ($1.69) on a year-over-year basis in August. By province, year-over-year wage growth was highest in August in New Brunswick (8.5 percent; $2.36), Nova Scotia (7.8 percent; $2.22), Prince Edward Island (7.1 percent; $1.93), and Ontario (5.8 percent; $2.00). Manitoba saw the lowest year-over-year increase in the average hourly wage at 1.0 percent ($0.30). PEI’s average hourly wage rate remains the lowest among provinces at $29.02.  

Unadjusted for seasonality, the national three-month moving average unemployment rate in August was 6.8 percent. The rate for population groups designated as visible minorities was 9.2 percent. Visible minority groups for which the rate was higher than the average were Black Canadians at 14.1 percent, West Asian Canadians at 12.4 percent, Arab Canadians at 11.3 percent, and Latin American Canadians at 9.5 percent.

Canada Employment

¹ Components may not sum to total due to rounding

Notes:
1.    The LFS estimates for August are for the week of August 11 to 17, 2024.
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 October 11, 2024.

Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey Estimates, released September 6, 2024.

For more information and links to tables, refer to the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey release for August 2024.

Related downloads for this release:

Monthly Labour Force Survey report - PDF (100KB)