Here's what P.E.I. jobs have disappeared in the pandemic

As the P.E.I. economy began to recover this summer following a difficult pandemic spring, some sectors actually showed a little growth compared to last year, but those that are suffering are suffering greatly.

Last summer there were 83,750 jobs in the provincial economy. It's down 4.1 per cent this year.

The top six sectors on P.E.I. represented 63 per cent off the province's jobs last summer. Here's a look at how those sectors have done, comparing last July and August to this July and August.

Health care and social assistance

As a sector that is largely in the public sector, you wouldn't expect a loss of jobs here during a pandemic.

There wasn't, but there was no real gain either. There was an average of 11,600 jobs this summer, up 0.9 per cent over last year.

Retail and wholesale

P.E.I.'s largest, wholly private-sector job generator was hit hard in the early months of the pandemic, with physical stores shut down. But the jobs mostly returned when the shops were allowed to reopen.

It was an average of 10,950 jobs this summer, down 2.7 per cent.

Public administration

By definition this is the public sector.

But unlike health care and social assistance there was some growth here.

There were 8,600 jobs this summer, up 3.0 per cent. 

Accommodation and food services

It's not surprising that there should be big losses in this area, but the scale of the loss is devastating.

There were just 4,700 jobs this summer, a drop of 39.4 per cent.

While this sector was ranked fourth in jobs last summer, it drops to sixth in 2020.

Construction

Construction has been thriving on the Island for years, and the pandemic slowed it down only briefly.

This sector showed a significant gain. There were 7,550 jobs this summer, up 4.9 per cent over 2019.

Manufacturing

Food processing makes up a big part of this sector, and it suffered in the early months of the pandemic.

But the non-durables sub-sector stormed back in the summer, and while durables were off slightly, the overall numbers were up.

There were 7,050 jobs in the summer, up 2.2 per cent.

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