B.C. loses startling number of jobs since beginning of the year
B.C. has lost 40,200 jobs in the first four months of 2026.
Statistics Canada released its labour force survey for April earlier today, showing that the province was down 4,300 jobs in April and that the unemployment rate had ticked up by 0.1 percentage point to 6.8 per cent.
However, the rate of job loss has slowed down from prior months. B.C. lost 19,200 jobs in March and 20,200 in February.
The B.C. Conservative Party was quick to send out a fiery statement on the results, stating that out of those 40,000 jobs, over 30,000 of them were full-time.
“These are not statistics. These are mortgages, rents, groceries, and futures,” reads the release.
Gavin Dew, the official opposition critic for jobs, economic development and innovation, blamed the job loss on a “public safety crisis,” AI reshaping the entry-level labour market, and an “incoherent position on land title” that has “shattered investor confidence in British Columbia.”
“There is no youth employment strategy. There is no AI workforce strategy. There is no strategy at all — just press releases and photo ops while the job numbers collapse,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s minister of jobs and economic growth, also sent out a statement following the labour force survey — painting a much different picture.
“As the war in Iran and tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump continue to impact people, businesses and economies around the world, British Columbia is staying strong in the face of uncertainty,” he said. “Investors are continuing to show confidence in our economy.”
Kahlon added that the province expects $88 billion worth of major projects to move forward under its Look West strategy, which could create tens of thousands of jobs over the next three years.
He said B.C. added nearly 12,000 jobs to the construction and manufacturing sectors in the month of April.
However, Jario Yunis, the Director of Policy for the Business Council of B.C., posted on X, noting that B.C.’s private sector employment is down 60,000 since the start of the year, “reinforcing a longer-term trend of private sector weakness.”
B.C.’s economic growth forecast for 2026 has so far been tepid, with fewer newcomers, a soft housing market, and trade uncertainty all weighing on it, with GDP growth for the year predicted to be 1.2 per cent.
Nationwide, Canada lost 111,000 jobs in the first four months of the year. In April, the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.9 per cent, with 18,000 jobs lost.
While it has increased by 0.4 percentage points since the beginning of the year, it is still below the recent peak of 7.1 per cent in August and September of 2025.
Kahlon also said that B.C. leads the country with the highest average hourly wage of $39.19.