Career Advice » BC Labour Market » Labour Force Survey Archives » Labour Force Survey - May 2008
BC Loses Some Full-Time Jobs
From April to May BC lost 9,000 full-time jobs, while a small gain in part-time jobs reduced the overall loss slightly to 7,000. The important losses were in trade (13,500), transportation (7,000) and agriculture (6,000). This drop in BC employment in May, while Canadian employment was unchanged, may have been more in line with the employment losses and half-point increase in the unemployment rate experienced in the US.
However, when compared to May of 2007 employment changes are positive, an increase of 56,000 jobs, for an employment growth rate of 2.5%. As with the month to month change, there were year to year losses in trade (13,200) and agriculture (5,700), but the really important drop was in manufacturing (18,200). Manufacturing includes wood product plants such as sawmills and plywood plants, but many manufacturing losses were in factories completely unrelated to natural resources. {See MANUFACTURING LOSSES below} The major drivers of the overall increase in employment compared to a year ago were construction (20,000), accommodation and food services (15,500), public administration (14,000), "other" services (10,500), and business and building services (10,100). Construction in fact has reached an all time high of 221,000 employed, and has been the major driving force behind BC's strengthening job market for five years.
The unemployment rate in May was 4.5%, up slightly from the 4.3% recorded in April and in May of last year. Unemployment rates are higher for some demographic groups. The youth unemployment rate was 8.8%, very recent immigrants had a rate of 9.8%, and Aboriginals had a rate of 12.1%, and both the youth and Aboriginal rates are up from a year ago, particularly the rate for young men. Regionally, all areas of BC have unemployment rates that are below the national average of 6.3% except for the Cariboo (7.9%) and North Coast-Nechako (8.6%). {See Tables 4 and 6}.
| The summer job market has just started in May for students aged 20 to 24. Employment among these students [across Canada] grew by 29,000 compared with a year earlier, mainly in part time. A surge in students looking for work pushed their unemployment rate up 3.2 percentage points from its level in May 2007 to 15.4% in May 2008. Source: Statistics Canada Daily, April 4, 2008 In BC, the returning student population in the 20 to 24 age group rose in numbers from May of 2007 by 13,000. Some 11,000 more were employed, but another 6,500 were still seeking work. As a result, both the employment rate and the unemployment rate rose for this group, by 4% and 9% respectively. {The employment rate is the number of employed divided by the population, while the unemployment rate is the number unemployed divided by labour force. The different denominators allow both rates to move in the same direction in some circumstances.} |
Manufacturing Sectors Lose Over 20,000 Jobs
The manufacturing industries in BC have dropped 21,000 jobs as between the first five months of 2007 and the same period this year. It was their weakest first five months since 2000, though 2002 was similar. While the first five months is not necessarily indicative of the entire year, the size of the decline is substantial enough that it will be very difficult for 2008 manufacturing employment to equal 2007 levels over the remaining seven months.
Wood products lost 8,000 jobs, while metal and mineral processing fell by about 2,000. The biggest drop was over 12,000 jobs across a wide variety of non-resource related manufacturers. These included larger than average declines in textiles and clothing, rubber and plastics, fabricated metals and machinery, and furniture. Despite the general downturn, some gains appeared in chemicals, electrical products and transport equipment.
Summary of Labour Force Survey Results
Legend:
MC(#) = Absolute Monthly Change
MC(%) = Percentage Monthly Change
YC(#) = Absolute Yearly Change
YC(%) = Percentage Yearly Change
"- -" = indicates number suppressed due to high sample variance
1 Aboriginal Persons living Off-Reserve. These data are 3-month adjusted averages
2 Very recent immigrants: in Canada <5 years; Recent immigrants in Canada 5-10 years; Established immigrants in Canada >10 years. These data are 3-month unadjusted averages
Source:
http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/bc-yk/59/jwtc/lmi/lfs0508.shtml