The NWT’s employment rate in 2025 was the lowest this century other than the pandemic-affected year of 2020, the territory’s bureau of statistics says.
December’s employment rate – the proportion of working-age people in work – was 62.9 percent, unchanged from November.
It has only been lower twice this century: June and July 2020, at the pandemic’s height, and even then only by about a percentage point.
The average employment rate for the territory in 2025 was 65.5 percent, down from 66.6 percent in 2024 and the NWT’s second-lowest behind 2020 since collection of data began in 2001.
“Employment rates slightly declined for most major worker groups, with the largest decreases among females, persons living outside of Yellowknife, and non-Indigenous persons,” the NWT Bureau of Statistics reported.
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The bureau added that between 2024 and 2025, the NWT labour force declined slightly by 200 people to 24,100.
The employment rate is important because it helps illustrate an economy’s health through the share of people finding and retaining work.
The territory’s employment rate remains higher than many southern provinces. (A few years ago, the labour market in the territory ran so hot that the NWT’s employment rate was far higher than any other jurisdiction at the time.)
However, the NWT’s present situation involves a dropping employment rate, falling participation rate – the proportion of people actively seeking work – and steady unemployment rate.
That combination usually means people are dropping out of the workforce rather than simply being unable to find a job.
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