Study: Labour market impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous people: March 2020 to August 2021

Released: 2021-11-16

A new study provides insights on the labour market impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous people in Canada, in the eighteen-month period following the beginning of the pandemic. It reports on trends in employment, unemployment and labour force participation among Indigenous people living off reserve in the provinces and is based on the Labour Force Survey.

Compared with non-Indigenous people, employment recovery following the initial impact of the pandemic had generally been slower among Indigenous people. More recent trends have converged, but the employment rate of Indigenous people remained lower than that of non-Indigenous people.

The employment rate of Indigenous people in the three months ending in August 2021 was 57.7%. In comparison, it was 56.2% in the three months ending in February 2020. Among non-Indigenous people, the employment rate was 61.2% in the three months ending in August 2021, a level similar to the pre-pandemic rate.

While labour market impacts were similar among Indigenous women and men in the three months after the onset of the pandemic, negative impacts have persisted for Indigenous women in subsequent months. In the three months ending in August 2021, the employment rate was 54.7% among Indigenous women and 60.9% among Indigenous men.

The study also examines provincial labour market trends among Indigenous people by comparing three six-month periods: a pre-pandemic period from March to August 2019, a pandemic onset and response period from March to August 2020 and a more recent period from March to August 2021.

Declines in employment rates among Indigenous people between the six months ending in August 2019 and the six months ending in August 2020 were largest in Alberta and British Columbia, and smallest in Saskatchewan.

Employment among Indigenous people subsequently increased in all regions. However, in the six-month period ending in August 2021, employment rates among Indigenous people were still below levels seen in the six months ending in August 2019 in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

Products

The study "Labour market impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous people living off reserve in the provinces: March 2020 to August 2021" is now available as part of the series StatCan COVID-19: Data to Insights for a Better Canada (Catalogue number45280001).

Contact information

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