The unemployment rate in British Columbia was 6.6% in August, down 0.1 percentage point from July’s rate of 6.7% and virtually unchanged from August 2012, according to Statistics Canada data released September 6.
B.C.’s unemployment rate remains below the national average of 7.1%, which is also down 0.1 percentage point from July 2013.
The number of jobs in B.C. grew by 6,200 since July but fell by 6,500 year-over-year – a drop of 0.3% compared with one year ago.
The number of part-time positions increased by 16,000 month over month but fell by around 11,500 or 2.3% year over year. Full-time positions have dropped by 9,800 since July but increased by 5,000 compared with August 2012.
Canada-wide, employment increased by 59,000 since July, consisting mostly of part-time positions, and 246,000 in the 12 months leading to August. The year over year figure is largely made up of full-time positions (176,000).
The highest rates of unemployment continue to be found in the Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador (10.7%), Prince Edward Island (10.6%), Nova Scotia (8.7%) and New Brunswick (10.7%).
Saskatchewan (4.2%), Alberta (4.8%) and Manitoba (5.2%) continue to have the lowest rates of unemployment.
