The province’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.9% in the first quarter as employment grew slightly faster than the labour force, according to the most recent BCStats data.
But the unemployment rate is still nearly double what it was in late 2007 when it was at a 30-year low of just more than 4%.
Job losses during the recession pushed B.C.’s unemployment rate back to levels last seen in the early 2000s.
About 196,000 British Columbians, on average, were unemployed and looking for work in the first quarter of 2010, a 1.6% decline from the average in the previous quarter.
The goods sector posted its first quarterly increase in employment (+0.2%) since the fall of 2008.
The job growth rate in the service sector, which employs eight out of 10 B.C. workers, was 1% in the first quarter, helping push employment in the sector above pre-recession levels.
Although the number of regular employment insurance beneficiaries has fallen since peaking in the third quarter of 2009, the decline is partly attributable to the fact that some previous beneficiaries are no longer eligible for payments.
Income assistance data showed the number of British Columbians receiving temporary income assistance continued to climb in the first quarter of 2010, reaching 60,749 in March, the highest level since August 2003.