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B.C. Labour Market Unchanged in June
Neither the employment nor the unemployment rate changed at all between May and June in B.C. Since employment moved up 4,000 while job seekers increased by 2,000, there were no changes in these percentage rates because the changes in either category were so small.
Compared to a year ago, the labour force and employment have increased practically the same proportions, 2.7% for employment and 2.8% for the labour force. The year to year increase in employment, some 61,000 jobs, is all full-time work as the number of part-time jobs actually declined. The number of active job seekers, classified as unemployed, has risen by 5,000 persons to 110,000 in total. The rate of participation in the job market is now 66.8%, which except for March of this year is the highest since 1994. The employment rate, which remains at 63.8%, is practically a record high, exceeded only by the 63.9% recorded in January and last November.
In June there were some changes in employment by industry, with gains in trade and transportation offsetting losses in financial, information and cultural, and food and accommodation services. Relative to June of 2007, the most important increases in employment are 19,000 in construction, 17,000 in education, and 15,000 in "other" services, such as repair, household and personal services. Self-employment increased significantly in June, by 17,000 jobs or by 4%, but remains below its level last June.
| Aboriginal people living off-reserve in British Columbia saw a large increase in their employment rate between the second quarters of 2007 and 2008, jumping 5.8 percentage points to 62.9%. Over the same period, the employment rate of non-Aboriginal people living in the province edged up to 64.2%. In contrast, the employment rate of Aboriginal people living off-reserve in Alberta declined 1.3 percentage points to 68.0% between the second quarters of 2007 and 2008. At the same time, non-Aboriginal people saw an increase of 0.8 percentage points in their employment rate, which rose to 72.7%. Aboriginal people living in Alberta continued to have the highest employment rate of their counterparts in the West. Source: Statistics Canada Daily, July 11th, 2008 |
Year to year, the employment increases came from service producing industries, with goods producing industries experiencing offsetting movements as between large increases in construction and equally large declines in manufacturing, including but not limited to forestry related plants and factories.
Construction Boom Vital to B.C. and Alberta
As of the first half of 2008, the construction industries in B.C. and Alberta now employ over 200,000 people. They are similar in size to that of Quebec, a province with a much larger overall employment base. Alberta's construction sector began to increase substantially after 1997 and B.C.'s after 2003. Since 2003, construction employment has increased by 34% across Canada, compared to an all-industry employment growth of just 9%. In the last five years, Alberta construction has risen by 38% or 55,000 jobs and in B.C. by 81% and 97,000 jobs.
The industry has provided about 21% of all the job growth across Canada since 2003, but in B.C. it's been responsible for 32% of the employment growth. Compared to other major goods producing sectors in B.C., construction now employs more people than agriculture, food and fisheries, forestry products and mining and mineral products combined. In fact, the 97,000 job gain in construction employment over the last five years is more than the total employment base in the forestry products group.
source: http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/bc-yk/59/jwtc/lmi/lfs0608.shtml#3a