New BC Stats data shows that unemployment in B.C.’s high-tech sector almost doubled between 2008 and 2009, but that the sector fared better than most during the downturn.
Between 2007 and 2009, the unemployment rate in the sector rose from 3.3% to 6.5%, but was more than a full percentage point lower than the province’s overall unemployment rate.
Some jobs within the tech sector were hit harder than others. While civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical engineers recorded a “remarkably” low unemployment rate of 2.8% in 2008, unemployment in that occupation ballooned to 7.1% last year.
The number of people employed by the province’s high tech sector – about 107,000 – remained the same last year as in 2007. According to the report, solid growth in the sector in 2008 was wiped out the following year by the recession.
According to BC Stats, high-tech occupations make up 4.7% of the province’s overall employment. That figure is forecast to grow 4.9% to 132,400 by 2019. Medical technologists and technicians are expected to be the most in-demand tech sector occupations, with a 31% rise in employment projected from 2009 to 2019.
According to BC Stats: “Given that the baby boom generation is starting to reach retirement age and the average age of British Columbia’s population is increasing as a result, the health care system will have greater demands placed upon it and an increase in workers in occupations related to health care will be necessary.”