Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia's employment rate reaches a record high

• Although the employment rate in Nova Scotia has been below the national average over the past three decades, the gap has narrowed since the late 1980s. In 2003, the provincial employment rate averaged 57.3%, 5.1 percentage points less than the national average. The year also marked a record-high employment rate in the province for the fourth year in a row.
• The province of Nova Scotia gained approximately 7,000 jobs (+1.6%) in 2003, mostly in public administration, health care and social assistance, and manufacturing. However, the retail and wholesale trade sector, which employed the greatest proportion of the working population in 2003 (17%), shed over 2,000 jobs. That year, this sector was employing fewer people than it did in 2000.
• Employment has grown an average of 1.8% a year since 1993, when the recent upward trend in employment began. Since then, the province has enjoyed a total increase of 68,000 jobs. Business, building and other support services saw the most substantial growth during this period, averaging yearly increases of 17%.
• In spite of a record-high labour force participation rate (63.2%) in 2003, the unemployment rate in the province dropped slightly, by 0.4 percentage point to 9.3%, almost matching record lows in 1976 (9.2%) and 2000 (9.1%).

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