P.E.I. job numbers remain on wild 2022 ride

The P.E.I. economy added 4,300 jobs in October and the unemployment rate plummeted 2.9 percentage points, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.

In September P.E.I. had the second highest unemployment rate in the country, behind Newfoundland and Labrador, as was typical before the pandemic. In October the 5.4 per cent rate was sixth lowest, and not far off the national rate of 5.2 per cent.

While there have been more jobs on P.E.I. this year than in 2019, the economy lacks the consistent growth it saw pre-pandemic.

This year job numbers were trending upwards from January to June, peaking at 87,200. They began to fall off in July, bottoming out at 81,900 in September, but popped back up again in October.

Similarly the participation rate — the number of Islanders aged 15 and over either working or looking for work — has been erratic. In 2019 the rate was steady between 66 and 67 per cent. This year it climbed to 67.2 per cent in February, and fell as low 63.6 per cent in September.