The Social & Economic Landscape
Bridging the Gap: From Education to Employment, Pilot Phase II

Pass Rates—June 2001
School District Males Females Total
Labrador 84.5 93.2 88.9
Northern Peninsula/Labrador South 73.1 84.6 78.6
Corner Brook/Deer Lake/St. Barbe 79.8 93.3 86.8
Cormack Trail 86.5 89.0 87.8
Baie Verte/Central/Connaigre 78.3 91.1 84.6
Lewisporte/Gander 79.8 88.9 84.4
Burin 86.2 91.3 89.0
Vista 85.7 92.1 89.0
Avalon West 87.2 94.8 91.2
Avalon East 80.1 87.4 83.8

Source: Compiled by the Community Accounts Unit based on information from the Department of Education.

Skill Set Training

Skill Set training is an important element of employment, particularly within industry, as the following trends suggest.

  • According to Newfoundland Statistics, the industrial sector is growing at an estimated rate of 2% per year (600 people), and the retirement rate is approximately 4% per year (1,200 people), introducing a 6% increase in demand for human resources annually.
  • Currently 8.5% of high school graduates enter industrial training programs. As the number of graduates shrink and the need for industrial sector workers increases, the estimate is that 40% of high school graduates will be required to enter the industrial sector in 10 years.

Source: Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, 2002/2003 Budget Submission, Innovation and High Level Job Creation, http://www.cme-mec.ca/shared/upload/2002-03%20Prebudget%20Submission.pdf

Provincial, national and international trends indicate that new job opportunities are increasingly tied to educational attainment. In this Province, those with a post secondary degree, certificate or diploma accounted for 55% of total employment in 1999, up from 45% at the beginning of the decade.

Conversely, those with less than high school accounted for 20% of employment in 1999 as compared to 29% in 1990. Those with high school completion or with some postsecondary studies accounted for about 25% to 27% of total employment over the decade.

Unemployment rates also appear to be correlated with educational attainment. In this Province, the unemployment rate for those with post secondary completion was 11.9% in 1999 (5.1% for university graduates), as compared to 18.2% for high school graduates and those with some post secondary, and 27.0% for those with less than high school completion.

Source: Labour Market Trends, Newfoundland and Labrador, Annual 2000 All analysis based on Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey http://www.economics.gov.nf.ca/pdf/LMT/LFS_Q4_2000.PDF