Surrey’s largest employers grew at their fastest rate in at least the last five years: 19.7 per cent to 3,443 employees in 2022 from 2,876 in 2021, according to data collected on Business in Vancouver’s list of the biggest Surrey-based employers (page 14). However, the growth was inflated because of the 33 per cent increase in staff at Surrey’s largest employer, Fraser Health Authority, which increased its employment base to 4,000 in 2022 from 3,000 in 2021.
When Fraser Health is excluded, average employment growth at Surrey’s top employers drops by 75 per cent to 4.9 per cent in 2022. While most of the growth in employee numbers over the past year comes from the top of the list, median employment grew 50.5 per cent to 675 in 2022 from 448.5 in 2018. During the same period, average employment grew 33.9 per cent to 3,443 in 2022 from 2,571.5 in 2018. This suggests that over the past five years, smaller employers lower on the list grew faster than larger companies higher on the list. Despite outperforming the average employee growth over the past five years, median growth at Surrey’s largest companies has slowed annually over the same period.
Median growth in employment over the past year was 1.2 per cent, significantly less than the one-year average growth increase of 19.7 per cent. In 2021, the median grew 3.6 per cent, which was down from 12.2 per cent in 2020 and 37.6 per cent in 2019. While their average employment has grown consistently over the past five years, some of Surrey’s largest employers still reported employment declines. The City of Surrey (No. 3) has reduced its employee base by 3.75 per cent since 2018, and Coast Capital Savings (No. 4) decreased its employee base by 6.6 per cent over the same period. ■
