The jobless rate in Vancouver was at a seven-year low in May, reaching 5.7% and easily beating the national average unemployment rate of 6.9%, according to Statistics Canada data released June 10.
The city gained 79,000 jobs year-over-year, which makes up around 72% of the 109,000 jobs created across the country. In the past year, Vancouver has moved to second place — from 22nd place last year — in terms of employment growth across Canada.
British Columbia led the country with 3.0% employment growth with 69,500 jobs added over the past year. This is in spite of a loss of 8,400 jobs in the month of May. The workforce increased by almost 75,000 in the 12 months to May, and the unemployment rate was sitting at 6.1%, which was the same as in May 2015.
Canada-wide, the unemployment rate was down 0.2 percentage points over the year, reaching its lowest rate since July 2015. The gain of 109,000 jobs came in ahead of analysts’ expectations. Part of this increase was due to a 12,200 gain in manufacturing jobs. Almost 20,000 public administration jobs were added, which was partly due to the temporary positions relating to the 2016 census.
Retail jobs did not fare as well, with a decline of 41,200 jobs.
Alberta lost 24,100 jobs in May. StatsCan said it was not going to include the Fort McMurray area in the survey because of data collection issues, but the report nonetheless reflects decreased economic activity caused by the Alberta wildfires.
In a note to investors, RBC pointed out that this data is the first major release to reflect the wildfires, which led to the shutdown of half of the oil sand production in the country.
“Today’s reported numbers did not reflect the direct effect of the wildfires, although it did capture some of the ‘knock-on’ effects elsewhere in the province,” the note said.
Robert Kavcic, senior economist and vice-president of economic research at BMO Capital Markets, said removing all the “mixed details” in the report, overall it is a “wash” for the Canadian economy.
“The big picture is that Canadian employment growth continues to steadily grind along in the 0.6%-to-1.0% y/y range, while major shifts are still playing out at the regional level,” Kavcic said. “This will do little to change our view on the Bank of Canada.”
Despite this mildly positive report, the Canadian dollar fell on the news relative to the U.S. greenback. As of press time, the loonie was trading at around 78.49 cents U.S., down about half a cent.
@EmmaHampelBIV
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