It’s going to remain difficult to get a job in super, natural British Columbia.
A quick look at May’s employment numbers paints the picture of a provincial job market that is essentially stagnant for at least the past year and a half.
And that’s not expected to change anytime soon.
“We’re basically treading water on the employment front in B.C. right now,” said Bryan Yu, an economist at Central 1 Credit Union.
Most sectors have not seen any significant change in the number of jobs for at least the past year. The only exceptions have been a 7,500 increase in construction jobs that offset the 5,500 jobs lost in the agricultural sector in May.
The stalled job growth stems from a subdued economic climate in B.C. Retail sales are lower now, year to date, than a year ago, and the residential real-estate market remains sluggish. The suspected high level of cross-border shopping suggested by a recent Business Council of BC report has likely hindered the retail sector in B.C. But growth in other industries has also stagnated.
“If you look at the CFIB survey, it also points to businesses being cautiously optimistic, but pointing to a lack of domestic demand as one of the big drawbacks for them right now,” Yu said.
B.C.’s stagnant job market is in stark contrast to Alberta’s. Statistics Canada data shows a 3.1% growth in jobs in Alberta since January 2012 to 2.2 million employed Albertans. The gap in the number of jobs between the two provinces has clearly shrunk and will likely continue if B.C.’s current job market funk continues.
Many economists have said that B.C. will likely see stronger growth in 2014. At the halfway mark of the year, signs of an economic surge remain distant, especially in light of the extreme market volatility in Asia last week and the World Bank’s second revision downward for the world economy. It now expects the global economy to grow 2.2%, down from 2.3% earlier and 2.4% forecast in January.
In the short term, government can’t do much to bolster the market, said Yu. “But we hope to see domestic demand start picking up and see some real positive momentum in the economy that would encourage some employers to hire.” •
