Unemployment Rate for Off Reserve Indigenous People and Overall Population

• Statistics Canada excludes Indigenous peoples who live on three First Nations reserves near metro Edmonton (Enoch, Alexander, and Wabamun) from its Labour Force Survey, but includes Indigenous peoples living in the City of Edmonton and surrounding municipalities.
• Since labour force data from Indigenous peoples has been collected, these unemployment rates have been consistently higher than those of the non-Indigenous population. This differential tends to increase during economic downturns.
• Since 2005, the highest Indigenous unemployment rate was 15.6% during the global financial crisis in 2009, 9.0 percentage points higher than the total labour force. By 2014, the Indigenous unemployment rate dropped to 7.7%, which was 2.6 percentage points higher than the total labour force.
• In 2019, the unemployment rate for Indigenous people was 13.2%, 5.9 percentage points higher than the total labour force.

Employment-related measures indicate the strength of an economy and, accordingly, the population’s ability to sustain itself. Higher unemployment rates lead to more people needing income support to maintain a minimal standard of living and challenge governments and businesses to find opportunities to stimulate job growth. Lower unemployment rates also have their challenges—for instance, employed individuals may struggle to balance their work and family roles, and may face difficulties to secure adequate child care or obtain affordable housing. 

The unemployment rates experienced by Indigenous peoples and youth are significantly higher at all times, but especially during economic downturns. While unemployment rates for women have typically been lower than those for men, especially in recent years, women’s earnings from employment continue to be significantly lower than those of men.