From 1981 to 2008, this is the net loss of people aged 18-24. Specifically it is the total number of net people in that age group that left the province over the 27 year period. Assuming those folks earned the average income for a full time worker, that means an annual loss to the economy of about $1.2 billion per year.
In the most recent five years I have access to the data, the net loss in those five years (2003-3008) is nearly double the net loss in this age group from the early 1990s.
Of course I am only talking about the net loss. Over 97,000 people in that age group have moved out during the 27 year period which really represents the folks we haven’t been able to keep here.
But don’t worry there is a strong net in-migration of people… over the age of 60.
There has been a pile of ink spilled in the past few days about whether we should force young people to volunteer. I think we should probably spend a little more time thinking about how to keep them here in the first place.
Hey, maybe the politicians should mandate they stay here. Because of the lack of jobs they can volunteer.
“that means an annual loss to the economy of about $1.2 billion per year. ”
And that would just be keeping the demographic constant. What would be the increase in that demographic in regions that are more robust wrt job creation? If you were to add a proportionate number to NB, the benefit to the economy would be huge.
You mention the ‘volunteer’ plank in the PC platform; neither party has had much to say yet about their strategies for creating high-wage jobs in NB’s private sector. As you say, that is a lot more critical to social programs and infrastructure in this province than getting kids to volunteer – the main beneficiaries of developing a spirit of volunteerism will be the provinces most of them move to in order to get good jobs.