Amidst all the doomsday talk of a coming recession and new mass layoffs announced every week, employment numbers in BC are looking pretty good, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.
The data shows employment is up in Canada, BC, and Vancouver.
We looked at the labour force characteristics of the Vancouver census metropolitan areas, seasonally adjusted, to see how the population and number of folks working – or not working – has changed in the last year.
Data from December 2022 shows that there are 2,403,200 people of working age in Vancouver, the “population.”
Of that group, 1,615,300 civilian, non-institutionalized people over the age of 15 were either employed or unemployed, making up the “labour force.”
There have been many changes in Vancouver’s labour force in the last year.
The population grew, while the labour force grew only slightly. Employment went up by 1.6%, while unemployment shrank by 20% from the same time last year.
According to Statistics Canada, employment growth nationally was led by an increase among youth aged 15 to 24.
“Employment in British Columbia increased by 17,000 (+0.6%) in December, offsetting a decline in November, while the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.2%. In the Vancouver CMA, the unemployment rate (4.4%) was little changed in December,” said Statistics Canada.
BC’s unemployment rate is better than the national average, which currently sits at 5%.
Other interesting notes about the labour force include the fact that there is record-high employment for women aged 25 to 54. You can find more information, including data tables, available online via Statistics Canada.