PEI

P.E.I. sees 3 months of record job numbers

P.E.I. broke a five-year-old record for the number of jobs on the Island in May, and broke that record again in June and July.

Most of the growth in full-time jobs

The province believes job growth will continue. (Eric Gay/The Associated Press)

P.E.I. broke a five-year-old record for the number of jobs on the Island in May, and broke that record again in June and July.

In February 2013 there was a total of 75,500 jobs on the Island. May broke that record with 75,800. It rose to 76,200 in June and 76,500 in July.

The unemployment rate was below 10 per cent for all three months, the best stretch since a five-month run in 2014.

"There's many parts of the economy that are growing," said Brad Colwill, acting deputy workforce minister, adding the government expects growth to continue.

"Recently the CFIB, when they polled their members, a large portion of them were planning incremental hiring in the near future."

About 80 per cent of the growth has been in full-time jobs.

Since early 2017 the unemployment rate has averaged around 10 per cent despite the growth in jobs, due to the growing population.

In 2018, the percentage of the population participating in the workforce has also been rising.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kevin Yarr

Web journalist

Kevin Yarr is the early morning web journalist at CBC P.E.I. Kevin has a specialty in data journalism, and how statistics relate to the changing lives of Islanders. He has a BSc and a BA from Dalhousie University, and studied journalism at Holland College in Charlottetown. You can reach him at kevin.yarr@cbc.ca.