Employment growth in B.C. is improving faster than the B.C. government and most economists anticipated earlier this year.
The result is an economy that is in better shape and one that is generating more revenue for the provincial government than Victoria anticipated in its March 2 budget.
Finance Minister Colin Hansen released his second quarterly report on November 25. The report notes the province is running about $20 million below the $1.72 billion budget deficit target set earlier this year.
That’s because of an improvement of $522 million in projected revenues and a $502 million increase in spending.
“The B.C. economy has been among the leaders in Canada and performed better than we were forecasting in February,” Hansen said in a release. “But, we continue to see a volatile economic climate.”
Central 1 Credit Union chief economist Helmet Pastrick told Business in Vancouver the 2% improvement in job growth, which amounted to 46,000 more jobs between January and October, is higher than the 0.9% job growth he expected in January but that it is on par with what he thought would be the case three months ago.
“It is certainly in the broad sweep of time, going back decades, below the long-run historical average,” Pastrick said of 2% job growth. “If you look at it over the past decade, let’s say, which is what most people’s memories are. It’s near that level.”
He believes B.C.’s export sector will continue to be challenged because of the high Canadian dollar and the short-term weakness in U.S. markets. But, sectors such as mining will do better than just OK.