Employment among NWT youth aged 15 to 24 reached a record high in April — the second month in a row to register a record-high youth job rate.
The youth employment rate rose to 53.7 per cent in April, an increase of 21 per cent over April of 2020; setting the record for April among that age group, according to the Labour Force Report released on May 7 by the NWT Bureau of Statistics.
The increase is part of a rising trend in the NWT that saw the overall April employment rate reach 68.2 per cent, a level not seen for April since 2016 when it was at 70.5 per cent.
The rate has steadily climbed since its pandemic low of 61.9 per cent in June 2020, and even increased above the levels in the months before COVID-19 arrived in the territory.
Though it’s unclear if the Bureau of Statistics included employment data from the new KFC and Starbucks locations on Old Airport Road that opened on May 3 and May 7, the combined total number of new jobs at the restaurants amounts to about 130 people, according to franchise owner Soul Foods Group.
Employment increases by demographic
The annual increase in employment was mainly among youth, women and people living outside of Yellowknife.
For residents of communities outside Yellowknife, April’s employment rate was the highest since August of 2016.
For Indigenous people, April’s employment rate rose by several percentage points to reach almost 60 per cent.
Annually, the NWT labour force increased by 1,400 to 24,800 while employment increased by 1,900 people.
Full-time employment increased in April by 1,400 people to 20,300, compared to April of 2020, with part-time employment rising by 600 to 3,000.
More business confidence possible: Chamber
Commenting on the report, Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce President Tim Syer said the higher youth employment rate could be attributed to businesses needing more flexibility with staffing arrangements.
Patterns of full and part-time employment moved in opposing directions when comparing April and March of 2020 with the same months of 2021, Syer explained.
According to monthly labour-force data from the Bureau of Statistics, there were 2,100 part-time positions and 19,900 full time positions when the pandemic hit in March 2020.
The following month, when the effects of COVID-19 on the economy began to show, full-time positions fell to 18,900 while part-time positions increased to 2,400.
By March of 2021, part-time positions had increased to 3,200, while full-time positions rose to 19,800.
The trend reversed in April 2021, when full-time employment rose by 500 positions compared to March and part-time positions decreased by 200.
“This could mean that businesses were feeling more confident about their operations, more certain on their staffing requirements and were starting to prepare to increase operations for the summer and fall seasons,” Syer said.
“This would certainly align with the feedback we heard from our membership as we asked the GNWT to establish clear criteria for gradually easing business restrictions.”
For Canada as a whole, the employment rate was at 58.9 per cent in April, a slight rise from the 58.4 per cent recorded in March.