Labour Force Participation Trend in Canada Cause for Concern

WEB15CTA_300x250_CanadaEmployedExpress Employment Professionals Releases 10-year Federal/Provincial Analysis of Rates

Highest LFPR: Alberta

Lowest LFPR: Newfoundland

Express Employment Professionals recently released a 10-year analysis of provincial labour force participation rates (LFPR) across Canada revealing which provinces have the highest and lowest percentage of people in the workforce. Overall a national trend is clear, there’s a slight but steady decline in labour force participation over the last decade.

The Canadian national labor force participation rate in January 2015 was 65.7 percent. Ten years ago, the participation rate was 67.3 per cent – indicating a drop of 1.6 percentage points. The monthly province-by-province LFPR data comes from the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey.

In January 2015, Alberta had the highest LFPR, 72.9 percent, 7.2 points above the national average. Newfoundland had the lowest; at 60.6 per cent, which is 5.1 percentage points below the national average.

“As someone who creates jobs for a living, I know a growing workforce is always better than a shrinking workforce,” said Bob Funk, CEO of Express. “Declining rates mean more people continue to give up looking for employment, which is cause for concern. That is not good for long-term growth, and left unchecked will add to labour shortages across the country.”

COM15CEP_LabourTable_chart

In the United States, the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the national labour force participation rates near all time lows. In December 2014, the U.S. national LFPR was 62.7 percent.

About Express Employment Professionals and Express in Canada
Express Employment Professionals puts people to work. It generated $2.85 billion in sales and employed more than 456,000 people in 2014. Express ranks as the largest franchised staffing company in the United States and the second largest privately held staffing company in North America. Its long-term goal is to put a million people to work annually. Express launched in Canada in July 1996, with a franchise in London, Ontario, and since then, has expanded and grown across Canada significantly. There are currently 34 Express franchises in Canada – five in British Columbia, six in Alberta, two in Saskatchewan, 22 in Ontario and one in Nova Scotia.

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