While Canadian employment metrics remain essentially unchanged, unemployment dropping 0.1% to 6.8%, June’s employment numbers are good news for British Columbia and bad news for everyone else.
“Unemployment rate fell for all the wrong reasons in June,” said Brian DePratto, a TD economist in a note to investors.
Fewer people looking for work caused unemployment to dip as the Canadian economy lost 700 net positions. According to DePratto, the slight drop in unemployment is a result of the third consecutive month of a shrinking Canadian labour force, down over 20,000 jobs in June and down 47,000 jobs since march.
The labour force participation rate, the percentage of eligible Canadians working or looking for work, has dropped to levels not scene since 1999. Commodity producing Alberta has been a pivotal driver of this with its labour participation rate dropping over 1% over the same period.
DePratto was not encouraged by the details of the June report as over 40,000 full time jobs were lost, being offset by a 39,000 part time job gain. May’s gains in goods-producing industries like construction and manufacturing were offset by June’s losses. Service industries saw gains mostly offsetting losses in good producing industries.
The number of Canadian employees in both the private and public sector also fell by a combined 38,000. This was offset by an increase in self-employment of roughly the same amount.
However, as has been the case for a year, bad job numbers in Alberta and the east don’t seem to make their way over the Rockies.
“British Columbia’s strong 16,000-job gain reinforces its status as Canada’s job growth leader, and it’s not even close anymore,” said Robert Kavcic, senior economist for BMO, in a note to investors.
British Columbia posted job gains far and away from the second largest job gain in New Brunswick of 1,200.
According to Kavcic “B.C. [is] picking up the slack” for poor job growth in the rest of the country.
B.C. employment is up 3% from 2015, the province’s unemployment rate fell 0.2% to 5.9% in June, the lowest in the country. Without British Columbia the country would have had employment growth of just 0.2% over the year. According to Kavcic Vancouver is the strongest labour market in the country with the unemployment rate hitting a 71/2-year low. At 5.4% Vancouver has one of the lowest joblessness rates in the country following only Quebec City, Peterborough and Victoria.
The major industry contributors to the west coast province’s job gains were construction, education and professional and business services.
