Employment growth stalls in British Columbia

Feb 08, 2020
Erik Fertsman
According to Statistics Canada's latest figures, employment growth stalled in January on a year-over-year and seasonally adjusted basis in British Columbia. These latest numbers, unless revised in the coming months, may be an early indicator of weakness in BC's economy. If confirmed, this would add BC to the group of other provinces currently struggling in Western Canada.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
As per the chart above, employment growth came in at -0.06% in January when compared to growth in January the previous year. This is the first contraction in year-over-year employment figures since July 2018. The estimate for total employed came in at 2,545,600 individuals, which is down from a peak of 2,575,800 in May 2019. 

The goods-producing sector of the economy was down about 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Both resource extraction and manufacturing posted declines, down about 11,000 jobs. While the services-producing sector of the economy saw gains overall, "transportation and warehousing" saw declines of about 5,500 jobs and "business, building, and other support services" lost over 10,000 jobs. "Information, culture and recreation" lost almost 14,000 jobs. Meanwhile, "Finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leading" saw gains of over 14,000 jobs.

Currently, I'm waiting for Q4 commercial bank statistics to be posted by Statistics Canada in order to get a better look at the economic situation in BC. I suspect all major credit categories (personal, business, and mortgages) are experiencing lower credit growth in Q4 on a year-over-year basis, which would explain at least some of the decline in employment figures. We've already begun to see a trend of growth deceleration in credit in previous quarters. You can check that data out by visiting the dashboard and navigating over to the employment tab.
Cover image by: Aditya Chinchure via Unsplash

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Enjoyed this article and want to support our work, but are using an ad blocker? Consider disabling your ad blocker for this website and/or tip a few satoshi to the address below. Your support is greatly appreciated.

BTC Address: 13XtSgQmU633rJsN1gtMBkvDFLCEBnimJX

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Most Recent

How Canada can build more homes without higher housing costs - report

By Erik Fertsman • 09 Nov, 2023
Governments are now starting to realize that solving the housing affordability crisis will require building more homes, and faster than ever before. But how can Canada build lots of homes when the increased levels of investments - particularly bank mortgages - that are needed to build more housing have consistently led to higher housing costs? We've prepared a report that tackles these important questions, and it's available for download at the link below.

Canadian housing prices likely to contract on annualized basis in 2023

By Erik Fertsman • 01 Nov, 2022
The tide has clearly turned in Canadian housing. Today, the outlook is markedly worse for housing prices, with price growth now trending downward, inventory starting to build, and demand collapsing further on high financing costs. Looking ahead, national prices could contract on an annualized basis next year in 2023.
Share by: