The unemployment rate in New Brunswick has hit a record low, but while that may sound like good news, the statistics confirm a troubling trend.
Statistics Canada reported Friday that unemployment in the province fell to 6.9 per cent last month, down from 8.1 per cent in January. Claude Gautreau, an economist with Canada Mortgage and Housing, says the percentage is dropping because the New Brunswick labour force is shrinking.
He says the labour pool in the province has gone down by 9,000 people, and he cites an exodus of workers to the west.
"The number of people actually looking for employment went down," Gautreau said. "If you read anything in the media these days, everybody knows about what's going on out west. It's reasonable to assume that that number did go down because a large number of people who ordinarily would have been here looking for work decided to go to Alberta, likely."
The number of people working in New Brunswick last month grew by about 2,500
The unemployment rate also fell in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. last month. In Nova Scotia it was 7.4 per cent, down from 7.8 in January, and in P.E.I., the rate fell to 10.1 per cent, down from 10.7.
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