Employment numbers up nationally but not in the Maritimes

All three Maritime provinces saw a slight rise in unemployment, according to Statistics Canada.

Nationally, Canada added 83,000 jobs in June, marking the first increase in employment since January and dropping the unemployment rate slightly to 6.9 per cent.

But the three Maritime provinces saw slight increases to their unemployment rates.

Maritime unemployment rates for June were:

• Prince Edward Island: 8.6 per cent, up 0.4 per cent from May
• Nova Scotia: 6.7 per cent, up 0.2 per cent from May
• New Brunswick: 7.3 per cent, up 1 per cent from May

Nova Scotia lost 3,400 jobs in June, with the majority of the losses in the accommodation and food services sector, according to the latest Statistics Canada figures.

Dennis Campbell, CEO and president of Ambassatour Gray Line said the hiring landscape looked different in the Spring.

“There was a better or more supply of available students than we had seen in previous years,” said Campbell.

The increase in job seekers may point to a tightening labour market or a sluggish start to the summer tourism season said Acadia University economist Andrew Davis.

“Month-to-month numbers can be noisy but 3,400 jobs is not a small amount considering the size of the province,” said Davis. “If this was Ontario that wouldn’t be very much but 3,400 jobs for Nova Scotia is a reasonable number you might dig into a little bit.”

Davis said he isn’t surprised by the increase in Maritime unemployment given the interconnectivity between economies.

Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia executive director Natasha Chestnut told CTV News the industry doesn’t put much emphasis on monthly statistics and tends to focus on quarterly trends but expects the job numbers to rebound as the summer season ramps up.

Chestnut also pointed to the weather in May and June and the stretch of rainy weekends which does impact the food service industry.