March 2008 - most people employed ever in that month
Statistics Canada reported the unemployment rate for economic region 240 (Digby, Yarmouth, Shelburne, Queens and Lunenburg counties) was 9.9 per cent in March 2008, down 2.3 percentage points from March 2007 but up 2 percentage points from February 2008. There were more people employed in Southern Nova Scotia this year than in March of any year.
The unemployment rate of 9.9 per cent has not been this low for any March since 1989. At the same time, the participation rate - the percentage of people working or looking for work compared to the population aged 15 and over - increased by 1.6 percentage points to 58.7 per cent. By comparison, the unemployment rate in March 2008 for Nova Scotia was 7.9 per cent and for Canada was 6 per cent.
by Carla Allen/The Vanguard 
