In order to put New Brunswick’s job creation (or lack thereof) into perspective, the plot below shows the number of persons employed at a given month/year in other provinces, as well as in Canada as a whole. Data come from Statistics Canada Table: 14-10-0287-01 and are adjusted for seasonality. Shaded periods represent economic recessions. Select for a range of years, province, working population (15 years of age and older), labour force, and number of persons employed. You may also select to compare provinces with absolute or indexed values . Indexed data are used to compare changes over time across provinces with very different population and labour market sizes. For each province and variable, the value in a selected base year is set equal to 100, and all other values are calculated relative to that base year. The index is computed by dividing each observation by the value in the base year and multiplying by 100. For example, an index value of 115 indicates that the series is 15% higher than in the base year, while a value of 90 indicates it is 10% lower. This approach emphasizes relative growth and change over time rather than absolute size, making it easier to compare trends among provinces.
Data and Comments on New Brunswick Issues
