‘The labour market is red hot’: Unemployment numbers drop in B.C., Canada
Posted June 10, 2022 2:31 pm.
Last Updated June 10, 2022 2:48 pm.
Unemployment numbers have fallen both in B.C. and Canada-wide, with thousands of new jobs added in recent months, according to Statistics Canada.
StatsCan said 40,000 jobs were filled nationally in May, pushing the unemployment rate down to 5.1 per cent.
B.C. Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, Ravi Kahlon, said the province added 5,100 new jobs in May and saw an improvement in unemployment.
“The unemployment rate in B.C. has dropped to a three-year low of 4.5 per cent, which is a rate not seen since July 2019. This is a significant improvement.” said Kahlon.
“There are now nearly 100,000 more people working in B.C. than prior to the pandemic,” he added.
Kahlon said that even with the improvement, there was more to be done.
“Right now, there are more jobs than people in the province. That’s why we need to redouble our efforts,” he said.
Official Opposition House Leader Todd Stone responded to the report on Twitter, saying despite the numbers, some industries in B.C. were suffering.
“Buried within the B.C. jobs numbers for May is the fact that the NDP are failing key industries in our economy, with the hospitality and construction sectors still down 20,000 and 22,000 jobs respectively since the start of the pandemic,” said Stone.
“There remains a massive staffing shortage within healthcare, especially within hospitals where thousands of critical workers have left their jobs. It’s unacceptable that the NDP continue to delay their long promised health human resources plan.”
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Stone said the job growth was based on funding public jobs, a move he didn’t see as sustainable.
“Private sector job gains account for less than a quarter of jobs recovered during the pandemic, which shows the NDP still don’t have a private sector focused strategy to grow the sectors that fund the public services upon which we depend,” said Stone.
Don Drummond, Stauffer-Dunning Fellow, Queens University, said the national unemployment numbers were a surprise.
“I don’t think even two years ago, anybody would have contemplated that we might get to an employment rate (this) low,” said Drummond. “The labour market is red hot.”
He explained it was likely the numbers would not get much lower because there simply aren’t enough people looking to enter the job market.
“I would think going forward, we’re probably going to see a flat or very slight increase in employment.”
Drummond said an important detail from the report was the increase in wage growth.
“It’s up almost 4 per cent. So that doesn’t suggest that we’re going to get back to 2 per cent inflation anytime soon.”
With files from The Canadian Press
