Jobs outlook grim for Nunavut’s young population: report

Nunavut’s youthful population faces many years in which economic growth will fail to yield enough jobs for everyone, according to a new report.

The “Northern Outlook” report by the Conference Board of Canada looked at economic trends in all three territories, the first time such a report has been issued specifically about the North.

Nunavut’s population growth — the highest in Canada — will continue to outstrip its economic growth according to the report.

Nunavut’s demographics are highly unusual compared to the rest of the country.

While Canada’s aging baby-boomers continue to dominate the country, Nunavut’s largest demographic is its children and youth.

Forty per cent of Nunavummiut are younger than 15 years old, compared to 17 per cent for Canada.

That means over the next 10 years more people in Nunavut will be in their economically productive, working years of life while more and more Canadians leave those years into retirement.

However, the territory’s youth will enter the workforce to find the unemployment rate still in the double digits.

Because of the limited job opportunities for young people, the report anticipates Nunavut will lose a net average of 145 people per year between 2009 and 2020.

Due to the small size of Nunavut’s economy, a single mine has a large impact on the territory.

Agnico-Eagle’s Meadowbank mine near Baker Lake is scheduled to open in early 2010, which will provide jobs in the mine and supporting sectors.

But Nunavut suffers from a chronic shortage of skilled labour, limiting how much employment a mine can generate for Nunavummiut themselves.

The Meadowbank project’s target for local employment is 20 per cent. The rest of the jobs will go to workers from outside the territory.

As a whole, 39 per cent of all employees in the mining sector in Nunavut are Nunavummiut.

The report calculates that by 2020, more than half of such workers will be residents of the territory.

Meanwhile, the public sector employs roughly 2,442 Nunavummiut and accounts more half of Nunavut’s entire economy.

The government has grown every year since division from the NWT, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, the report predicts.