The NWT's employment rate for January 2025 was a little more than 66 per cent, making about a one per cent increase from December 2024.

That one per cent represents 500 employed people, according to the NWT Bureau of Statistics. The total number of active workers in the territory now is 23,000, with full-time jobs added in the goods-producing sector in particular, the bureau noted.

According to Budget 2025, the public sector, comprising government jobs, makes up more than half of this territory's workforce. And of that roughly 12,000 people, about half of them work for the GNWT. Meanwhile, 9,000 people make up the private sector.

Unemployment shrunk to 1,200 people in January. That's a drop of 200 people, moving the unemployment rate down to five per cent. The last year the territory had a five per cent unemployment rate was 2023, the bureau reported.

"Among major worker groups, the employment rate increased among youths aged 15SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½“24," the bureau stated. That demographic's rate grew by nearly eight per cent.

Employment among males and people living outside Yellowknife also grew, whereas it declined slightly among Yellowknife residents, females, and those aged 25 or older, the bureau reports.

Within the growing public sector across the NWT, public administration continues to to be the most popular industry, with a makeup of about 6,400 people, according to the bureau.

Compared the the rest of the country, the NWT has the second-highest employment rate, behind Yukon by about seven per cent. 

The next labour force report form the bureau is due to be released March 7.