Employment in B.C. sees a shift after months of declines
After a rough start to the year, B.C. finally saw an increase in jobs last month.
Earlier today, Statistics Canada published its labour force survey for May 2026, showing that B.C. added 25,000 jobs.
Statistics Canada said this “partially” offsets the cumulative loss of 39,000 jobs recorded in February and March. In April, B.C. still lost 4,300 jobs — meaning that the province was down over 40,000 jobs in the first four months of 2026.
However, even with the job gain last month, B.C.’s unemployment rate of 6.8 per cent held steady. And despite that, 7,000 of the new jobs were for young people, as youth unemployment ticked up in B.C. from 14.4 per cent to 15.3 per cent in May.
At a national level, 88,000 jobs were added to the economy in May, and the unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 6.6 per cent.
The Conservative Party of British Columbia was quick to send out a press release raising alarm about “a youth jobs crisis.”
“You see it in the stats, and you hear it from youth and their worried parents,” said Gavin Dew, MLA for Kelowna-Mission and Critic for Jobs, Economic Development, Innovation and Artificial Intelligence.
“More than 7,000 young people have left B.C. in the last year in search of greener pastures. We are watching our families and our future flee,” he added.
Earlier this week, the Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC) published a report on the youth unemployment rate in B.C., saying that since 2019, the province has seen fewer young people working, more young people struggling to find jobs, and “a growing number who have stopped looking altogether.”
In the past seven years, youth employment has declined by 14 per cent.
“A first job is where young people start building the experience and skills they need to have a successful life. When tens of thousands of young British Columbians are not getting that start, the province loses future workers, taxpayers, and economic growth,” reads the report.
BCBC said that the current unemployment rate hasn’t been seen outside the pandemic and the global financial crisis.
They said the losses are in retail and accommodation, which they say are because of weak private-sector hiring and an increase in the supply of entry-level workers.
But Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth, sent out a rosier statement following the labour force survey, saying that “British Columbia is building a stronger, more resilient economy,” despite dealing with U.S. tariffs and rising costs from the war in Iran.
With files from Amir Ali