Unemployment in Northeast B.C. dropped back below 4% in August.
Stats Canada data released Friday shows 37,900 were employed and 1,500 unemployed in the region last month. Unemployment was reported at 3.8% for the month.
Employment has grown by 2,000 jobs year over year — last August, 35,900 were employed and 1,800 unemployed.
Employment is also up 800 jobs month over month from July, when 37,100 were reported working and unemployment was at 4.4% with 1,700 out of work.
Since the beginning of 2022, the jobs count is up 600 jobs from January, when 37,300 were reported employed and unemployment was too low to report.
2022 Northeast B.C. unemployment:
- July - 4.4%
- June - 5.0%
- May - 5.0%
- April - 4.8%
- March - too low to report
- February - too low to report
- January - too low to report
Province-wide, the B.C. economy shed 28,100 jobs last month after months of consecutive job growth that put the squeeze on the labour market. While the province managed to add 3,700 part-time jobs, it lost 31,900 full-time jobs.
The province was already showing signs of tapping the brakes in July when it added a mere 500 jobs to the economy. That was down notably from the addition of 6,500 jobs in June.
B.C.’s unemployment rate took a hit in August as a result of those 28,100 lost jobs, expanding by 0.1 percentage point to a still very low rate of 4.8%, which indicates the labour market remains quite tight.
Canada as a whole lost 39,700 jobs last month, while unemployment dropped 0.5 percentage points to 5.4 per cent.
B.C. unemployment at a glance:
- Northeast - 3.8
- Vancouver Island and Coast - 4.3
- North Coast and Nechako - 5.0
- Thompson-Okanagan - 5.0
- Kootenay - 5.1
- Lower Mainland Southwest - 5.1
- Cariboo - 6.2
"There is no debating that conditions are cooling quickly, with the pullback in construction a clear indication that rate hikes are beginning to bite,” BMO chief economist Douglas Porter said in a note, referring to the loss of 28,200 construction jobs nationally (B.C., in fact, added 2,300 construction jobs in August).
“However, the steady upward grind in wage growth (+5.4% annually) and the stability in overall hours worked (+3.7% annually) suggest that the Bank won't back down anytime soon.”
Retail/wholesale jobs in B.C. declined by 15,000 in August, followed by losses in the business, building and other support services bucket (-6,500 jobs) and educational services (-5,200 jobs). The biggest gains came in the aforementioned construction industry and what Statistics Canada describes as the “other services” bucket (+5,500 jobs).
The nation’s inflation rate reached 7.6% last month, down from 8.1% in July. But B.C.’s inflation rate went from 7.9% to 8% during that same period.
Statistics Canada will release August inflation data on Sept. 20.
— with files from Tyler Orton/Business in Vancouver
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