Photo: Ansgar Walk · CC BY-SA 2.5Fewer working-age people have jobs in Clyde River than in almost any other Canadian town
Clyde River had an unemployment rate of 34% at the 2021 census, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns. An hour or more each way is the commute for 0% of workers in Clyde River; the average is 8.8 minutes. Half the households in Clyde River had more than $97,500 in 2020, before tax, and the middle of Canadian towns sits at $85,900.
Work in Clyde River, in a few figures
Fewer people in work than most towns
Among residents aged 15 to 64, 36% were in work at the 2021 census, against 73% in the middle of Canadian towns; take everyone 15 and over and it falls to 34%. In work ↓
More unemployment than most towns
Unemployment stood at 34% on census day in 2021 (9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns). Unemployment ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 8.8 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 0% last an hour or longer. The trip to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, its commuting tables, Employment Insurance and the Labour Force Survey.
Jobs and income in Clyde River earn B+
Better than 70% of Canadian towns on three measures together.
Its strongest measure is trip times; its weakest, the share of 15-to-64s in work.
Graded against Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more; less unemployment and a shorter commute count in its favour.
How the grade works
Census 2021 measures, weighed equally against every Canadian town and neighbourhood of 2,500 people or more: the share of residents aged 15 to 64 in work, median household income (2020), the unemployment rate and the average commute. Each becomes a percentile; their average sets the letter.
In Clyde River, 36% of the working-age population has a job
The participation rate, everyone 15 and over working or looking for work, was 51%. May 2021, when the census was taken, was a pandemic spring; unemployment has come down since, as the Labour Force Survey records.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: people in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64, and the census unemployment rate (15 and over); the 25-to-54 rate is Statistics Canada’s own (98-10-0485). The Labour Force Survey and business counts are context, not grade inputs.
A smaller share in work than in almost any Canadian town.
Time on the road to work from Clyde River
Trips under 15 minutes: 92%, more than the 36% in the middle of Canadian towns. Timed exactly, the average is 6.9 minutes (Statistics Canada).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: commuting duration in five bands; our average uses each band’s middle (75 minutes for an hour or more), so it runs about two minutes above Statistics Canada’s own.
Clyde River keeps its workforce on a working day
The job is inside the municipality for 93% of its commuters (70% in the middle of Canadian towns).
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
15 people come into Clyde River to work, most from Pangnirtung and Igloolik
- Hall Beach10
- Qikiqtaaluk, Unorganized (NO)10
6.5% of the people who work in Clyde River live outside it, 10 of them in Pangnirtung, 496 km away. The main destination the other way is Hall Beach, with 10.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
How Clyde River’s household incomes compare
Before tax, 2020: higher than in 83% of Canadian towns.
These are 2020 incomes, before tax, and they include pandemic benefits such as CERB, which lifted many lower incomes that year.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
Without a car, 40% of Clyde River’s commuters get to work
Transit barely figures here, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns. The car takes 38% of commuters here, under the 89% in the middle of Canadian towns.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
5% more people are on EI in the Qikiqtaaluk census division than in 2019
That is about 3.2 people on EI for every 100 aged 15 to 64 in the division. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 rose by 18%. The count topped out in August 2021 at 750 people, 2 times the 2019 average.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. Data for EI beneficiaries covers the Qikiqtaaluk census division. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
The Walkability grade for Clyde River: B
Better than 60% of Canadian towns on two measures together.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Clyde River, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- Employment Insurance. A monthly count of Employment Insurance beneficiaries for the whole census division. It tracks the local job market, but it is not an unemployment rate.
- In work. We divide the number of employed residents by the number aged 15 to 64. Workers past 64 still count on top, because the 2021 Census crosses work with age only for whole municipalities; in return, a retirement town’s pensioners don’t drag the rate down.
- Unemployment. The census-week jobless rate for residents 15 and over. Its base is the labour force, those employed plus those actively looking.
- Household income. Half of households had more than this before tax in 2020, half less, counting every source of income. For a neighbourhood we estimate the median from the income brackets of its dissemination areas.
- Trip times. Our average assumes everyone in, say, the 15-to-29-minute band takes 22 minutes. Across all the bands that runs a shade above Statistics Canada’s measured average.
- Where people commute. Counts of workers with a fixed workplace, by where they live and where they work, both taken as whole municipalities; the jobs figure takes everyone who works here, wherever home is.
- Which towns we compare. Any town of 2,500 or more counts, and so does any city neighbourhood that size; the city as a whole and First Nations reserves don’t. The middle is the median.
Questions about work in Clyde River
What is the average household income in Clyde River?
The census puts Clyde River at $97,500 for 2020, before tax and at the median, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns.
How do people in Clyde River get to work?
38% of commuters drive, 40% walk; 0% of everyone in work worked at home on census day.
How long is the commute from Clyde River?
The average commute is 8.8 minutes; 92% of trips take under 15 minutes and 0% an hour or more.
Where do people in Clyde River work?
Most stay: 93% work in Clyde River. The rest go first to Hall Beach (10) and Qikiqtaaluk, Unorganized (NO) (10).
How many jobs are there in Clyde River?
The 2021 census found about 230 people with their usual workplace in Clyde River, or 1 for each resident who travels to a fixed job. Statistics Canada counted 11 businesses with employees in June 2026.
What is the unemployment rate in Clyde River?
On census day in May 2021 unemployment stood at 34%, where the middle of Canadian towns had 9.9%.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (Census Profile) · Statistics Canada, tables 98-10-0458 and 98-10-0459 (commuting) · Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0323 (EI beneficiaries) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Counts (33-10-1176) · grades: TownRatings. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).