New Brunswick's jobless rate tumbles to 6.5% as thousands leave labour force

New Brunswick's unemployment rate dropped to 6.5 per cent in July, as 6,100 people left the labour force last month, according to Statistics Canada's monthly labour force report.

Even though the province has the lowest unemployment rate in the Atlantic provinces, the number of jobs has remained fairly steady, the report said.

"It's not a result of necessarily more people employed it's a result of fewer people participating in the labour market and fewer people searching for work," saidAndrewFields, an analyst with the labour statistics division at Statistics Canada.

The province lost 2,300 full-time jobs but gained 2,500 part-time jobs.

The province's unemployment rate in June was 8. 1 per cent, adecrease from 8.4 per cent the month before.

The loss of 6,100 people from the labour force in July brings the number in that departing group over the last 12 months to 15,600.

Fields said about 2,000 of the people who left in Julywere over the age of 55.

"You can expect that because New Brunswick has one of the older populations," he said. "If you have people retiring and leaving the labour force, obviously that's going to have an effect."

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Another 2,400 were young people between the ages 15 and 24, and the drop in their numbers in the workforce might justreflect adecline in population across the province, Fields said.

"It doesn't mean they lost their jobs necessarily, it just means that there could be fewer youth and therefore the number goes down," he said.

The remaining 1,800 people who leftthe workforce in Julywere betweenthe ages of 25 and 54.

Fields said atotalof about 240,000people in that age group aren't working.Hesaid 87 per cent of themdon't want to work, three per cent are waiting for a recall, and 3.5 per cent said they weren't working for"other reasons."

About 3,200 people joined the labour force at this time last year.

Statistics Canada reported Fridaythat only 60.4 per centof the New Brunswick population were in the workforce, down from 61.4 per cent in June.

"Employment in New Brunswick was little changed on both a monthly and year-over-year basis," read the Statistics Canada report.

Statistics Canada reported Nova Scotia's unemployment rate was 7.9 per cent, followed by Prince Edward Island at 10 per cent and Newfoundland and Labrador at 15.7 per cent.

Now and a year ago

The unemployment rate in all areas of the province was lower in July 2016:

• TheCampbelltonandMiramichiareas saw the highestunemployment rates in July, at 7.9 per cent, but they're were still lower than the 10.5 per cent found at this time last year.
• Moncton'sunemployment was seven per cent, down from 10.4 per cent.
• In Saint John, the unemployment rate dropped to6.3 per cent, down from 7.3 per cent.
• Fredericton's unemployment rate was fourper cent, compared with 6.9 per cent.
• Woodstock and Edmundston's unemployment rate was 2.9 per cent, up from 2.4 per cent.

• Canada adds 11,000 jobs in July, jobless rate ticks down to 6.3%

Meanwhile, Canada's economy added 10,900 jobs in July, and thejobless ratefellto 6.3 per cent from July.

While not many jobs were added overall, the unemploymentrate droppedtwo percentage points, to 6.3 per centthe lowest level since October 2008.

With the July jobs, theCanadian economy has added more than 387,000 jobs in the past 12 months,the strongest 12-month figure in a decade.