Small Employment Increase in August

BC gained 8,000 jobs in August over July, a gain of just under half a percent. All the increase was in full-time work. The employment and unemployment rates were practically unchanged at 63.3% and 4.0%, and can be compared to rates of 63.4% and 6.0% across Canada.

Nationally, employment was up by 23,000 and the unemployment rate was steady at 6.0%. In the US, however, employment actually fell by 4,000, ending four years of uninterrupted growth, and revised data for June and July showed greater weakness in construction and manufacturing than previously realized.

In July BC followed a national trend towards increasing construction employment, with some 9,000 more jobs in building. There was a large gain of 13,000 jobs in the food and accommodation sector, an important contribution to youth and student employment. Along with Ontario, BC experienced a significant drop in professional and technical services, nearly 8,000 jobs in this province in the last month.

On a regional basis, the southern sections of the province all have unemployment rates under 5%, except for the Kootenay region which is just under 6%. The Cariboo and North-Coast Nechako have somewhat higher than average unemployment rates of 5.8% and 7.4%, while the Northeast rate is essentially zero.

Since 1995 returning students in BC have faced a summer job market less favourable than the national average. To a small degree that remains the case, but as of the May to August period of 2007 the province's returning students had an unemployment rate of 9.3%, the lowest since either 1981 or 1990, and less than the national average figure of 12.9%. Their employment rate rose four full points from last summer to 53.1%, their best showing since 1992, but still 1.5 percent below the national figure of 54.6%.

BC Labour Market and Labour Disputes There was little change in overall labour market estimates for British Columbia in August. However, there were a number of ongoing labour disputes in the province, including members of unions in 31 coastal forestry companies and municipal workers in Vancouver. Workers on strike or locked out are considered employed according to Labour Force Survey definitions. The number of hours lost from work due to labour disputes in British Columbia was substantial. During the week of August 12th, an estimated 14,000 employees were not at work because of labour disputes, resulting in a loss of about 517,000 hours or 37.4 hours per affected employee. Source: Statistics Canada September 7, 2007

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All Major Groups of Industries Gaining Employment Since 2005

For illustrative purposes BC's economy and job market can be conveniently divided into eight industrial groupings, based in part on resources and in part on wage levels. The goods sectors can be arranged in terms of agricultural, forestry, and mineral production and related manufacturing, plus the construction industry, and then the remainder of the manufacturing industries, that is, those not tied to a primary industry. The service industries can be classed as either public or, if mostly private, than mostly high or low wage.

Comparing the most recent twelve months (Sept. 2006 to Aug. 2007), with the previous twelve (Sept. 2005 to Aug. 2006), shows that all eight industry groupings have shown positive changes. Employment gains were modest in the agricultural and forestry groups, but amount to about 5,000 to 6,000 jobs in mining and metals, non-resource manufacturing and low-wage services. Somewhat surprisingly, the biggest gain, 18,000 jobs, came in public services, that is government, health and education. The next largest increases were in construction (15,000) and high wage services (13,000), which consists of utilities and wholesale trade, transportation, and financial, professional, and information services.

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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

Summary Data - BC - 1 Month (Seasonally Adj.)

	August 2007	July 2007	August 2006	MC (#)	MC (%)	YC (#)	YC (%)
Population 15+ (000)	3,578.4	3,572.6	3,519.2	5.8	0.2	59.2	1.7
Labour Force (000)	2,359.8	2,355.3	2,307.7	4.5	0.2	52.1	2.3
Employed (000)	2,265.9	2,257.6	2,196.5	8.3	0.4	69.4	3.2
Emp-Full-Time (000)	1,816.5	1,807.4	1,763.7	9.1	0.5	52.8	3.0
Emp-Part-Time (000)	449.4	450.2	432.8	-0.8	-0.2	16.6	3.8
Unemployed (000)	93.9	97.7	111.3	-3.8	-3.9	-17.4	-15.6
Unemployment Rate (%)	4.0	4.1	4.8	-0.1		-0.8
Participation Rate (%)	65.9	65.9	65.6	0.0		0.3
Employment Rate (%)	63.3	63.2	62.4	0.1		0.9

Employment by Industry - BC - 1 Month (Seasonally Adj.)

	August 2007	July 2007	August 2006	MC (#)	MC (%)	YC (#)	YC (%)
Total Industry (000)	2,265.9	2,257.6	2,196.5	8.3	0.4	69.4	3.2
Goods-Producing	490.4	486.8	461.0	3.6	0.7	29.4	6.4
Agriculture	34.4	35.6	33.7	-1.2	-3.4	0.7	2.1
Forestry, Fishing, Mining, Oil & Gas	46.9	45.9	45.1	1.0	2.2	1.8	4.0
Utilities	11.4	11.8	9.0	-0.4	-3.4	2.4	26.7
Construction	196.3	187.7	183.2	8.6	4.6	13.1	7.2
Manufacturing	201.4	205.8	189.9	-4.4	-2.1	11.5	6.1
Service-Producing	1,775.5	1,770.8	1,735.5	4.7	0.3	40.0	2.3
Trade	379.2	376.1	347.3	3.1	0.8	31.9	9.2
Transport & Warehousing	123.6	126.2	115.2	-2.6	-2.1	8.4	7.3
Fin, Ins, Real Estate, Leasing	149.2	150.0	145.1	-0.8	-0.5	4.1	2.8
Prof, Sci, Tech Services	168.2	175.9	174.0	-7.7	-4.4	-5.8	-3.3
Mngmt, Admin, Other Support	93.7	93.5	103.6	0.2	0.2	-9.9	-9.6
Education Services	143.6	141.9	156.0	1.7	1.2	-12.4	-7.9
Health/Social Ass't	235.3	239.1	242.1	-3.8	-1.6	-6.8	-2.8
Info, Culture & Rec	117.5	112.0	108.1	5.5	4.9	9.4	8.7
Accom & food serv	182.9	169.5	169.5	13.4	7.9	13.4	7.9
Other Services	88.4	89.4	92.1	-1.0	-1.1	-3.7	-4.0
Public Admin	93.9	97.1	82.7	-3.2	-3.3	11.2	13.5

Employment by Sector - BC - 1 Month (Seasonally Adj.)

	August 2007	July 2007	August 2006	MC (#)	MC (%)	YC (#)	YC (%)
Total	2,265.9	2,257.6	2,196.5	8.3	0.4	69.4	3.2
Employee (000)	1,833.3	1,829.0	1,771.7	4.3	0.2	61.6	3.5
Public	393.4	389.6	391.2	3.8	1.0	2.2	0.6
Private	1,440.0	1,439.4	1,380.6	0.6	0.0	59.4	4.3
Self-Employed (000)	432.6	428.6	424.7	4.0	0.9	7.9	1.9

Unemployment Rates by Age & Sex - BC - 1 Month (Seasonally Adj.)

	August 2007	July 2007	August 2006	MC (#)	YC (#)
Both - 15+ Yrs	4.0	4.1	4.8	-0.1	-0.8
Both - 15-24 Yrs	6.2	6.8	8.1	-0.6	-1.9
Both - 25+ Yrs	3.5	3.6	4.2	-0.1	-0.7
Men - 15+ Yrs	3.6	4.3	4.8	-0.7	-1.2
Men - 15-24 Yrs	6.5	7.1	9.1	-0.6	-2.6
Men - 25+ Yrs	3.1	3.7	4.0	-0.6	-0.9
Women - 15+ Yrs	4.4	4.0	4.9	0.4	-0.5
Women - 15-24 Yrs	5.9	6.5	7.1	-0.6	-1.2
Women - 25+ Yrs	4.1	3.5	4.4	0.6	-0.3

Unemployment Rates - Provinces - 1 Month (Seasonally Adj.)

	August 2007	July 2007	August 2006	MC (#)	YC (#)
Canada	6.0	6.0	6.4	0.0	-0.4
Newfoundland and Labrador	13.7	13.6	15.0	0.1	-1.3
Prince Edward Island	10.2	10.5	11.0	-0.3	-0.8
Nova Scotia	8.9	8.8	8.3	0.1	0.6
New Brunswick	7.7	7.2	9.0	0.5	-1.3
Quebec	7.0	6.9	7.9	0.1	-0.9
Ontario	6.4	6.6	6.4	-0.2	0.0
Manitoba	4.2	4.2	4.4	0.0	-0.2
Saskatchewan	4.9	4.8	5.3	0.1	-0.4
Alberta	3.5	3.3	4.1	0.2	-0.6
British Columbia	4.0	4.1	4.8	-0.1	-0.8
Abbotsford	4.5	4.1	3.9	0.4	0.6
Vancouver	3.8	4.0	4.0	-0.2	-0.2
Victoria	3.6	3.4	3.0	0.2	0.6

Unemployment Rates - BC Economic Regions - 3 Month Avg. (unadj.)

	August 2007	July 2007	August 2006	MC (#)	YC (#)
Canada	6.1	6.0	6.4	0.1	-0.3
British Columbia	4.3	4.3	4.8	0.0	-0.5
910 Vancouver Island	4.0	3.9	4.6	0.1	-0.6
920 Lower Mainland - SW	4.2	4.2	4.5	0.0	-0.3
930 Thompson Okanagan	4.7	4.6	6.0	0.1	-1.3
940 Kootenay	5.8	4.7	6.1	1.1	-0.3
950 Cariboo	5.7	4.8	6.2	0.9	-0.5
960/970 N. Coast/Nechako	7.4	7.7	5.6	-0.3	1.8
980 Northeast	- -	- -	- -	- -	- -
Vancouver CMA	4.2	4.3	4.5	-0.1	-0.3
Victoria CMA	4.1	3.4	3.5	0.7	0.6
Abbotsford (Matsqui)	4.4	4.1	3.9	0.3	0.5

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From: http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/bc-yk/59/jwtc/lmi/lfs0807.shtml