2024 Budget Labour Market Forecast
Source: Statistics Canada. Table: 14-10-0327-01; Forecast Nova Scotia Finance, Budget 2024-2025
- Population growth is forecasted to be 2.6% in 2024.
- The labour force is forecasted to increase by 14,300, which is a 2.7% increase.
- Employment is forecasted to grow by 7,700 jobs, or 1.5%.
- The unemployment rate is also forecasted to rise by 1 percentage point, reaching 7.4%.
- The participation rate is forecasted to increase slightly in 2024, to 61.6%.
Labour Market Forecast
Source: Statistics Canada. Table: 14-10-0327-01; Forecast Nova Scotia Finance, Budget 2024-2025
Nova Scotia’s working age population grew by over 57,600 since 2019, reaching a high of 863,600 on July 1st of 2023.
- Rising international and interprovincial migration has increased the population making up for natural population change.
- Nova Scotia’s labour force and employment are expected to keep growing.
- Employment growth, notably in full-time jobs, had been growing since 2016 until interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In 2019, Nova Scotia’ unemployment rate reached record lows, going below 7.5%.
- Unemployment rose to nearly ten percent in 2020, before falling to 8.4% in 2021 and again to 6.3% in 2023 as employment recovered.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table: 14-10-0327-01; Forecast Nova Scotia Finance, December Budget Update, 2023