The province's overall job market has remained relatively weak thus far this year, and that isn't likely to change anytime soon. But behind the provincial numbers are signs of employment strength in some regions of B.C.
"It's not a completely negative story across the province," said Bryan Yu, an economist at Central 1 Credit Union. "It's not great, but it's important to note that there are substantial differences in the economy. Just because you have no net job gains in one area, you can still see other areas remain quite strong."
According to Central 1's latest regional labour market report, of the seven major regions in the province, only two have negative labour market trends. The Lower Mainland is the largest, and perhaps the most significant, given it's B.C.'s biggest labour market. According to the report, the number of Lower Mainland jobs fell 0.8% by nearly 12,000 over the third quarter of the year ending September 31.
The region's total number of jobs fell to 1.44 million for the 1.55 million people seeking work in the Lower Mainland.
The Cariboo was the only other region with negative job growth. Employment there also fell 0.8% but by a smaller absolute amount of 630 jobs.
Job markets in the rest of the province have improved in recent months. Third-quarter employment jumped 2% (5,060 jobs) in the Thompson-Okanagan and 1.6% (1,300 jobs) in the Kootenay region. Even Vancouver Island, which has some of the lowest levels of job-market participation, saw 680 more jobs in the third quarter helping to keep the region's unemployment rate below the provincial average for the past year.
Both the North Coast and the Northeast have seen notable job growth, and the higher-than-average job-market participation rates in both regions suggest the demand for labour and the job opportunities are among the highest in the province.
Yu noted that the labour force data doesn't take into account the many "mobile workers" who work in the region but officially live elsewhere.
"Other data suggests there is more activity going on up there than only the labour numbers would suggest." •
