Boom, boom (IV)

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, 21.7% of the entire labour force, and 26.2% of the entire employed labour force, was employed in some form or another in the provincial public sector.

The comparable figures for the ten provinces as a whole were 6.8%, 12.6%, and 13.8%, respectively.

In no other province is the provincial public sector now as large, on any of these measures, as that in Newfoundland and Labrador. (Saskatchewan ranked second in 2010Q1, at 9.7% of population, 18.6% of labour force, and 19.6% of employment, respectively.)

In fact, in no other province has the provincial public sector ever been as large, for as long as Statistics Canada has been keeping count.


* 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).