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June 26, 2026LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND HOURS WORKED, 2025 [PRELIMINARY] Statistics Canada has released preliminary labour productivity accounts for 2025.
The data are consistent with provincial and territorial real GDP by industry data for 2025 as well as the Survey of Employment, Payroll and Hours and the Labour Force Survey. Data reported below focus on all industries, including business sector, government and non-profit institutions. For example, education refers to both private educational institutions and government-funded schools.
Nova Scotia's labour productivity grew by 1.2% in 2025. Nationally, labour productivity across all industries grew 0.7% with growth in every province except Québec. Prince Edward Island reported the fastest labour productivity growth in 2025.
Nova Scotia's hours worked increased by 1.0%, outpaced by labour productivity growth for real value added growth of 2.3%.
Nationally, hours worked increased 0.8% in 2025 with growth in seven provinces, led by British Columbia and Québec. Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Alberta all reported fewer hours worked in 2025, which was offset by labour productivity gains.
Labour productivity represents the amount of real value added generated per hour worked. Nova Scotia's labour productivity was $49.2 in real value added per hour worked in 2025 - the third lowest among provinces (ahead of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick).
National labour productivity was $60.9 in real value added per hour worked. Labour productivity is considerably higher in resource-producing provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, Alberta) as resource industries generate large amounts of real value added with comparatively few hours worked. Labour productivity was lower in all three Maritime provinces.
After rising in 2020, labour productivity declined across all provinces, and has remained below 2020 levels in every province except Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan.
Hours worked increased 1.0% in Nova Scotia in 2025. Seven provinces reported higher hours worked, led by Québec. Prince Edward Island reported the fastest decline in hours worked.
Compared with 2019, Nova Scotia's hours worked have grown faster than the national average. Only Prince Edward Island reported a stronger increase in hours worked over this period. Québec, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador reported the least growth in hours worked over this period.
Nova Scotia's real value added increased by 2.3% from 2024 to 2025 - outpacing the national growth rate of 1.6%. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the fastest growth in real value added across all industries, while Québec reported the slowest growth.
Compared with pre-pandemic levels from 2019, Nova Scotia's real value added was 15.2% higher in 2025. Nationally, real value added was 11.6% higher in 2025 than in 2019 with gains in all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador. Real value added for Prince Edward Island has grown the most compared to 2019.
Employee compensation per hour worked increased by 4.7% in Nova Scotia in 2025, which was faster than the national pace of 3.9%. All provinces reported rising employee compensation per hour worked with Prince Edward Island reporting the fastest growth.
Nova Scotia's total employee compensation was $48.70/hour worked in 2025. This was 91.5% of the national average ($53.20/hour). Employee compensation per hour worked was highest in British Columbia and lowest in New Brunswick.
Nova Scotia's total compensation per hour worked increased by 33.4% from 2019 to 2025. Nationally, employee compensation per hour worked increased by 29.1% with gains in all provinces. Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and Nova Scotia reported the fastest gains in employee compensation per hour worked over this period while Alberta reported the slowest growth.
Unit labour costs represent the amount of labour compensation required to generate $1 in real value added. Unit labour costs rise when employee compensation per hour rises. Unit labour costs fall when labour productivity improves.
In 2025, Nova Scotia's unit labour costs across all industries increased by 3.2% - slightly faster than the national pace of 3.1%. Unit labour costs were up in all provinces with the fastest growth in Prince Edward Island.
Nova Scotia's unit labour costs were $0.989 per $1 of real value added in 2025. This was the highest among provinces, followed closely by Prince Edward Island. Saskatchewan had the lowest unit labour costs.
Nova Scotia's unit labour costs rose in each year from 2019 to 2025, rising by 30.0% over 2019 levels in 2025, second only to Newfoundland and Labrador. National unit labour costs were up by 25.8%. Saskatchewan and Alberta reported the slowest increases in unit labour costs over this period.
Nova Scotia's labour productivity grew in 2025 for both goods industries (+5.1%) and services industries (+0.4%). Nova Scotia's goods sector outperformed the national average productivity change (-1.0%) while it lagged national service industry productivity growth (+1.2%)
Nova Scotia's labour productivity was 80.8% of the national average. Nova Scotia's productivity gap reflects both lower goods industry productivity (71.4% of the national average) and services industry productivity (83.8% of the national average). This reflects different industrial composition between Nova Scotia and Canada. For example, Canada's relatively high goods industry productivity is elevated by resource extraction industries that are much more prevalent in some other provinces.
Prior to the pandemic, Nova Scotia's labour productivity had been a consistent driver of growth in real value added. After the pandemic anomalies of 2020, Nova Scotia's productivity had declined in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Nova Scotia's decline in productivity over 2020-2024 was not as steep as the national productivity decline over that period.
Nova Scotia labour productivity growth (all industries) in 2025 was the fastest growth since 2017 (outside of pandemic distortions).
Following the severe distortions in 2020, Nova Scotia's labour hours worked have grown rapidly - reflecting both post-pandemic hiring as well as rapid population and labour force growth. Nova Scotia's real value added has risen in each year since 2020.
Nova Scotia's unit labour cost growth has picked up since the pandemic, and growing faster than the national average since 2023. Nova Scotia's unit labour costs were 13.3% higher than the national average in 2025.
Nova Scotia's labour productivity in 2025 was highest in real estate/leasing, utilities, information/culture and finance/insurance. Nova Scotia's labour productivity was notably lower than Canadian industry averages for most sectors (exceptions: support for agriculture/forestry, information/culture, and real estate/leasing).
Nova Scotia's labour productivity declined most for holding companies (though this is a small industry) and mining/quarrying. In mining/quarrying, hours worked were up, offsetting the decline in labour productivity for a small gain in real value added.
The fastest gains in productivity was in construction where falling hours worked did not prevent rising real value added.
Nova Scotia's higher unit labour cost is observed across many industries. The highest unit labour costs were in support for mining/oil/gas (a relatively small industry) as well as fishing. The lowest unit labour costs were in information/culture and utilities.
Nova Scotia's unit labour costs were generally above their Canadian industry averages, with the exceptions of forestry, support activities for forestry, construction, retail trade, information/culture, education (public and private), and accommodation and food services.
In the last year, unit labour costs grew fastest for agriculture/aquaculture, followed by transportation, finance/insurance, information/culture and professional/technical services. Unit labour costs were down for forestry, support for mining/oil/gas, construction, wholesale and retail.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 36-10-0713-01 Labour productivity and related measures, by province, territory, and industry
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