P.E.I. loses 600 jobs in February

Prince Edward Island lost 600 jobs from January to February 2016 according to Statistics Canada's latest job numbers.

The province actually saw an increase of400 full time jobs but that was more than offsetby a loss of 1,000 part time jobs.

• P.E.I. sheds 400 jobs, mostly part-time, in January 2016
• P.E.I. job numbers fail to keep up in 2015

The number of Island residents looking for employment also increased, and that helped pushthe unemployment rate up to 11 per cent.

Over the last year P.E.I. has lost a total of2,200 jobs.

P.E.I. Opposition economic development critic MatthewMacKaysaid the numbers show that Islanders who lost their jobs out West are returning home to find there's nothing there for them here either.

"People are moving back from out West, there's no work there, there's no work here so a lot of financial stress, a lot of financial burden on people right now," saidMacKay."And probably within I'd say the last 90 days is when I've seen it the most, that's probably my number one constituent issue is people crying for work."

MacKaysaid the province needs a new job creation strategy because the current strategy isn't working.

He said trips like a recent mission to India undertaken by Premier Wade MacLauchlan, and previous trips by his predecessor Robert Ghiz haven't yielded lasting gains for the provincial economy.

"He's toured the world here basically looking for job creation and we've yet to see any signs of it yet. I think we need to start focusing on a smaller scale and focusing on some small business opportunity. The last thing we should be trying to do is put up electricity rates and increase the HST right now, it'd be devastating to the economy."

Economic forum to explore job creation

P.E.I.'s Minister of Workforce and Advance Learning Richard Brown said he's concerned with the job losses, saying they reflect a bigger trend across the country.

"We're working hard, we're having an economic forum on Monday to bring in private companies from all across Prince Edward Island to discuss how we can grow our economy and grow our workforce, and what educationand skills do the workers need for these companies?"

Brown notes it's not just the pool of available jobs that's shrunk, but also the size of the P.E.I. workforce, as more older workers leave the workforce than are replaced by younger workers coming in.

"That's one of the reasons we're working on our population strategy, focused on three R's: repatriating Islanders, retaining Islanders and recruiting new Islanders."

Brown also says he's hoping the federal budget will bring forward money for infrastructure spending that will help create jobs on Prince Edward Island.