Employment Share by Occupation
For Ross River adults (those aged 15 years or older), 76 percent are active in the labour market, just below the 81-percent involvement in the labour market across the Yukon. Unemployment is significantly higher in Ross River than the average for the Yukon. In the 2001 Census, 37 percent of the workforce said they were unemployed. This is a little more than three times the 12-percent unemployment rate reported for the whole Territory. The Census reported that unemployment for men stood at 48 percent, while the women's unemployment rate was a little lower, but still close to 30 percent.
On average during 2003, 25 people claimed employment insurance in Ross River. The number of people claiming employment insurance has varied from just under 20 to over 30 in the past decade.
In Ross River, young people aged 15 to 24 are less likely to be working or looking for work than are youth in the Yukon as a whole. About 63 percent of Ross River youth said they were in the formal labour market, compared to 68 percent Yukon-wide. Even when young adults were involved in the labour market in 2001, they had little chance of finding employment. The Ross River youth unemployment rate in 2001 stood at 60 percent, compared to the youth unemployment rate of about 20 percent across the Yukon.
People are somewhat less likely to work full-time, full year in Ross River than in the Yukon overall. Almost 32 percent of work was reported as full-time, full year, compared to 46 percent Yukon-wide.
Self-employment is somewhat lower than average in Ross River. It accounted for just under 9 percent of total work activity, compared to 13 percent across the Yukon.
Average employment income in Ross River as reported in the 2001 Census was almost $20,000 compared to $31,500 for the Yukon. For those with full-time, full year work, average earnings were almost $33,000, still below the $44,600 earned Yukon-wide. The main fields of work in Ross River are sales and service occupations as well as teaching and social services. Management, business, and administration fields provide a smaller share of employment than they do on average across the Yukon.
Employment in construction and other trades continued to be important work areas for Ross River in 2001 with several construction projects under way. The proportion of the workforce in the primary and processing occupations is lower at this time, however, with the closure of the Faro mine. The amount of mining exploration has also continued to drop drastically into 2004, limiting jobs in these fields. When the mines are in operation or exploration activity is taking place there can be a surge of employment opportunities for construction and other trades and for transportation workers. Another occupation found in Ross River is trapping.
