A total of 13,200 Islanders are unemployed as of last month, an increase of 1,600 from May, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada.
The latest Labour Force Survey put P.E.I.’s unemployment rate at 15.2 per cent for the month of June, an increase of 1.3 percentage points from May. The growth in unemployment is largely due to the economic impacts of the public health restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to the start of the pandemic, in February, P.E.I.’s unemployment rate stood at 8 per cent.
However, the number of Islanders who are working has increased over the past month. As public health restrictions have eased in P.E.I. over June, the numbers of Islanders employed grew by 1,700 compared to May as businesses continued to reopen. In total, 73,600 Islanders were employed as of June.
When looked at by gender, the labour force survey paints a picture demonstrating women have experienced far more of the brunt of the economic damage of the pandemic.
While the total number of individuals unemployed dropped by 700 amongst men over 25 years of age between May and June, the number of women unemployed grew by about 300.
Looking at the year-over-year growth, the number of unemployed women on P.E.I. grew by 166.7 per cent between June 2019 and June 2020 while the number of unemployed men dropped by 20.5 per cent during the same time period.
Between May and June 2020, the unemployment rate for men 25 years or older dropped by 1.8 percentage points to 9.5 per cent. During the same period of time, the unemployment rate for women 25 years or older stayed constant at 15.5 per cent.
