Boom, boom (I)

In the first quarter of 2010, approximately 53,780 people in Newfoundland and Labrador worked in some portion of the provincial public sector: 11,550 in the provincial civil service, 20,400 in public health-care and social services establishments, 10,900 at Memorial University and the public colleges, and 10,930 employed by the various public school boards.*

That is to say, 10.5% of the entire provincial population – including children, retirees, and those unable to work – was employed in some form or another in the provincial public sector.

The comparable figure for the ten provinces as a whole was 6.8%.

In the thirty years in which Statistics Canada has measured public sector employment, the percentage of people in Newfoundland and Labrador who are employed in the provincial public sector has never been this high.


* Figures may not add exactly, due to rounding.

Figures calculated from StatsCan Tables 051-0005 (population), 183-0002 (government employment) and 282-0001 (labour force and employment).