Employment numbers plummet
Number of working people in the territory drops to lowest since 2010
Jessica Davey-Quantick
Northern News Services
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The number of employed people in the NWT dropped to its lowest since 2010 last month, according to Statistics Canada.
Deneen Everett: Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce executive director blames businesses leaving the territory for the decline in numbers. - NNSL file photo
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Between December 2016 and January 2017, employment dropped by 700 people, the largest reduction in employment between those two months since 2001.
"There's 700 fewer people with jobs," said Jeff Barichello, an economic statistician with the NWT Bureau of Statistics. He couldn't comment on where those people went, or if they left the territory.
The statistics also show the number of unemployed people remain unchanged at 1,600 people, with the working population of people over the age of 15 remaining constant at 32,400 between December and January.
The numbers are the result of a monthly survey conducted by Statistics Canada.
Barichello explains the unemployment rate is based on the number of people who are looking for work, divided by the number of people in the labour force.
The number of employed people aged 15 to 24 and aboriginal people also dropped by 10.6 per cent from 2016, or 700 people. Even just looking at December to January, 400 fewer young people were employed. Aboriginal employment remained steady from December to January, but fell from January 2016 by 6.2 per cent, or 600 people.
"Even though these things are cyclical, it is lower than usual. You do expect January to be lower than the other months of the year, but even if when you start comparing January to the previous January to the two years ago January, it is lower than usual," said Barichello.
He couldn't say why this is happening.
"It's just purely numbers. Is it because of this specific project or a specific industry where people are getting laid off, we don't know," he said.
The NWT Chamber of Commerce's board had not read the report, which was released on Feb. 10, by press time, and declined to comment. Mayor Mark Heyck also declined to comment as he has not had the opportunity to review the stats or the underlying factors by press time.
Deneen Everett, executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, is placing blame squarely on businesses leaving the territory, and the city. Yellowknife saw the number of employed people drop by 1,300 from last year, with 500 fewer people employed from December 2016 to January 2017.
"I think it's the result of some of the mine closures that we've seen as well as the decisions of large corporations to move south to lower cost jurisdictions," said Everett. "I think there's a lot of factors ... it does seem like it is the high cost of doing business here in the Northwest Territories."
Her theory is backed up by the results of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce's annual membership drive, taking place this month.
"When we're doing our membership drive this year, all of the businesses that have cancelled so far except for one have cancelled because they're leaving Yellowknife," she said.
In November, Dominion Diamond announced it was moving its head office to Calgary, taking 100 jobs with it. The same month, Diavik also laid off 51 people - both companies cited fiscal belt tightening for the cuts.
In an e-mail statement to Yellowknifer, Education, Culture and Employment Minister Alfred Moses stated the territory's economy never fully recovered from "the global and economic recession (of) 2008."
Neither the minister nor the Yellowknife chamber are prepared to watch the business community evaporate however.
"I think really the first step is connecting with those businesses and having those conversations - why are you leaving? Is it because you're not able to attract skilled employees? Is it because rent is too high? Is it because there's not enough services here? Specifically, what is it?" said Everett. "And I don't know that answer, but the Yellowknife Chamber will be taking some serious efforts to get those answers and then to resolve them."
On the GNWT side, Moses explained the Skills 4 Success initiative is targeted to "improve employment success" for NWT residents, as well as close skill gaps and respond to industry needs.
"I am committed to ensuring our residents have a comprehensive toolkit at their disposal so they can fully participate in the workforce and find success," he stated.
Everett said the important part of these numbers is the rate of self employment, which rose from last year by 300 people.
"I think this demonstrates that Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories is an excellent environment for entrepreneurs and small businesses. With that said, I'm hearing a lot of comments that growth is challenging," she said, adding that with numbers like these, "we're going to see people leave the Northwest Territories."
