There is no question that 2007 was a strong year for employment growth in New Brunswick. I tracked this growth on this blog. However, I pointed out that you need to look at these things more longer term to show trends. Politicians love to talk about how strong employment growth is a result of their policies. Every month, we get the same spiel.
The problem is that the day is slowly coming when the Minister will not be able to leverage 2007 numbers and will have to show the real employment growth figures for New Brunswick in 2008 (or not). The truth is that New Brunswick has not grown its employment in 10 months while Canada as a whole added almost 200,000 new jobs. Only Newfoundland performed worse on the jobs front.
I’d like the minister – and I am still serious about this – to actual render a comment about the 2008 to date figures instead of reverting back to leverage 2007. I think he would have a lot of credibility if he came out with a comment or two on 2008 data.
Employment Growth/Decline (Dec. 2007-Sept. 2008)
Source: Statistics Canada.