Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A red hot private sector job market is turning students away from summer work with the territorial government, says Employment Minister Charles Dent.

"It would appear from the raw numbers that the private sector has become more attractive to summer students," Dent said.

So far, 600 applicants have applied for government jobs this summer and 200 have been hired, down from 700 applicants last year who filled 343 jobs. In 2003, the GNWT had more than 1,600 applicants looking for summer employment.

Dent said he would canvass departments on their need for summer students and added that varying work terms contributed to the decline in student employment.

"Not all students get four months worth of employment and not all departments are looking for somebody for an entire 16 weeks," he said. "Some of the positions that are available may only be for nine, 10 or 11 weeks."

Amber Jeannotte, manager of student applications for human resources, said the goal was to hire as many students as in previous years.

"It's really up to the individual departments," said Jeannotte. "I believe we're still trying to target the same number of jobs."