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BC/Yukon Region - Labour Force Survey - February 2008
- Highlights
- Immigrants
- Summary of Labour Force Survey Results
- Summary Data - BC
- Employment by Industry - BC
- Employment by Sector - BC
- Unemployment Rates by Age & Sex - BC
- Unemployment Rates - Provinces
- Unemployment Rates - BC Economic Regions
Highlights
- There was little change in the overall labour market situation in BC last month. Employment and labour force showed little change, so the unemployment rate remained at 4.1%.
- On an annual basis, however, job growth in the province is starting to slow. BC gained an additional 52,100 jobs, which translates to a growth rate of 2.3%. That's below the 4.5% peak reached a couple of years ago, but much closer to what forecasters expect for BC for 2008.
- Construction employment continues to grow, adding 4,700 jobs and pushing the level of employment in the industry to a record of 214,500. That's 14.7% above last February. Manufacturing employment, however, took a hit, losing 8,700 jobs over the past month. Over the year, employment in the industry is down 10.0%.
Immigrants
Since January, 2006, the Labour Force Survey has been tracking the labour market performance of immigrants in Canada. We'll look at the past year of data.
Three out of every ten persons aged 15 and over in BC are immigrants. As the graph shows, established immigrants (defined by Statistics Canada as those in Canada for over 10 years) account for most of our non-Canadian born population. Very recent immigrants (those here for less than 5 years) account for a much smaller 3.6% share (124,800 immigrants) of the province's working-age population.
As the second graph illustrates, very recent immigrants have an unemployment rate that is double the BC average (8.7% vs. 4.3%). Over time, however, the labour market situation for immigrants improves. Those here between 5 to 10 years had a lower unemployment rate of 6.8%. And for those who have been here for over ten years, there was no statistical difference between their rate of unemployment and the rate for those born in Canada.
Summary of Labour Force Survey Results
Legend:
MC(#) = Absolute Monthly Change
MC(%) = Percentage Monthly Change
YC(#) = Absolute Yearly Change
YC(%) = Percentage Yearly Change
"- -" = indicates number suppressed due to high sample variance
| February 2008 | January 2008 | February 2007 | MC (#) | MC (%) | YC (#) | YC (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population 15+ (000) | 3,614.1 | 3,609.5 | 3,547.4 | 4.6 | 0.1 | 66.7 | 1.9 |
| Labour Force (000) | 2,402.5 | 2,402.9 | 2,345.8 | -0.4 | 0.0 | 56.7 | 2.4 |
| Employed (000) | 2,303.2 | 2,305.2 | 2,251.1 | -2.0 | -0.1 | 52.1 | 2.3 |
| Emp-Full-Time (000) | 1,835.0 | 1,833.1 | 1,794.0 | 1.9 | 0.1 | 41.0 | 2.3 |
| Emp-Part-Time (000) | 468.2 | 472.1 | 457.0 | -3.9 | -0.8 | 11.2 | 2.5 |
| Unemployed (000) | 99.3 | 97.7 | 94.7 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 4.6 | 4.9 |
| Unemployment Rate (%) | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | ||
| Participation Rate (%) | 66.5 | 66.6 | 66.1 | -0.1 | 0.4 | ||
| Employment Rate (%) | 63.7 | 63.9 | 63.5 | -0.2 | 0.2 |
| February 2008 | January 2008 | February 2007 | MC (#) | MC (%) | YC (#) | YC (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Industry (000) | 2,303.2 | 2,305.2 | 2,251.1 | -2.0 | -0.1 | 52.1 | 2.3 |
| Goods-Producing | 499.2 | 509.3 | 485.0 | -10.1 | -2.0 | 14.2 | 2.9 |
| Agriculture | 38.4 | 43.2 | 35.5 | -4.8 | -11.1 | 2.9 | 8.2 |
| Forestry, Fishing, Mining, Oil & Gas |
46.7 | 47.8 | 47.4 | -1.1 | -2.3 | -0.7 | -1.5 |
| Utilities | 14.4 | 14.6 | 9.3 | -0.2 | -1.4 | 5.1 | 54.8 |
| Construction | 214.5 | 209.8 | 187.0 | 4.7 | 2.2 | 27.5 | 14.7 |
| Manufacturing | 185.2 | 193.9 | 205.8 | -8.7 | -4.5 | -20.6 | -10.0 |
| Service-Producing | 1,804.0 | 1,795.9 | 1,766.1 | 8.1 | 0.5 | 37.9 | 2.1 |
| Trade | 359.9 | 355.9 | 359.4 | 4.0 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| Transport & Warehousing | 128.4 | 129.1 | 131.0 | -0.7 | -0.5 | -2.6 | -2.0 |
| Fin, Ins, Real Estate, Leasing | 147.9 | 145.1 | 139.9 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 8.0 | 5.7 |
| Prof, Sci, Tech Services | 175.0 | 171.2 | 168.9 | 3.8 | 2.2 | 6.1 | 3.6 |
| Business, Bldg, Other Supp Serv | 102.2 | 108.2 | 96.5 | -6.0 | -5.5 | 5.7 | 5.9 |
| Education Services | 156.7 | 166.7 | 158.8 | -10.0 | -6.0 | -2.1 | -1.3 |
| Health/Social Ass't | 240.9 | 246.3 | 243.2 | -5.4 | -2.2 | -2.3 | -0.9 |
| Info, Culture & Rec | 122.4 | 116.9 | 116.6 | 5.5 | 4.7 | 5.8 | 5.0 |
| Accom & food serv | 176.8 | 168.1 | 172.3 | 8.7 | 5.2 | 4.5 | 2.6 |
| Other Services | 91.9 | 93.3 | 88.5 | -1.4 | -1.5 | 3.4 | 3.8 |
| Public Admin | 101.8 | 95.1 | 91.2 | 6.7 | 7.0 | 10.6 | 11.6 |
| February 2008 | January 2008 | February 2007 | MC (#) | MC (%) | YC (#) | YC (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 2,303.2 | 2,305.2 | 2,251.1 | -2.0 | -0.1 | 52.1 | 2.3 |
| Employee (000) | 1,899.9 | 1,893.3 | 1,827.3 | 6.6 | 0.3 | 72.6 | 4.0 |
| Public | 416.4 | 417.4 | 403.4 | -1.0 | -0.2 | 13.0 | 3.2 |
| Private | 1,483.5 | 1,475.9 | 1,423.9 | 7.6 | 0.5 | 59.6 | 4.2 |
| Self-Employed (000) | 403.3 | 411.9 | 423.8 | -8.6 | -2.1 | -20.5 | -4.8 |
| February 2008 | January 2008 | February 2007 | MC (#) | YC (#) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Both - 15+ Yrs | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Both - 15-24 Yrs | 7.9 | 7.5 | 7.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| Both - 25+ Yrs | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Men - 15+ Yrs | 4.0 | 4.1 | 3.7 | -0.1 | 0.3 |
| Men - 15-24 Yrs | 7.4 | 8.2 | 7.8 | -0.8 | -0.4 |
| Men - 25+ Yrs | 3.4 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Women - 15+ Yrs | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 0.3 | -0.1 |
| Women - 15-24 Yrs | 8.4 | 6.8 | 7.6 | 1.6 | 0.8 |
| Women - 25+ Yrs | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 0.0 | -0.3 |
| February 2008 | January 2008 | February 2007 | MC (#) | YC (#) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 5.8 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 0.0 | -0.3 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 13.1 | 12.2 | 14.1 | 0.9 | -1.0 |
| Prince Edward Island | 10.0 | 10.6 | 10.3 | -0.6 | -0.3 |
| Nova Scotia | 7.7 | 7.4 | 7.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| New Brunswick | 8.1 | 8.2 | 6.9 | -0.1 | 1.2 |
| Quebec | 7.0 | 6.8 | 7.8 | 0.2 | -0.8 |
| Ontario | 6.1 | 6.3 | 6.3 | -0.2 | -0.2 |
| Manitoba | 4.2 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 0.4 | -0.1 |
| Saskatchewan | 4.1 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Alberta | 3.5 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| British Columbia | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Abbotsford | 4.5 | 3.6 | 4.4 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| Vancouver | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.2 | -0.2 | -0.4 |
| Victoria | 3.4 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| February 2008 | January 2008 | February 2007 | MC (#) | YC (#) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 6.0 | 5.8 | 6.3 | 0.2 | -0.3 |
| British Columbia | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.6 | 0.1 | -0.4 |
| 910 Vancouver Island | 5.0 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 0.5 | -0.3 |
| 920 Lower Mainland - SW | 3.7 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 0.1 | -0.5 |
| 930 Thompson Okanagan | 5.3 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| 940 Kootenay | 4.4 | 4.8 | 6.8 | -0.4 | -2.4 |
| 950 Cariboo | 5.8 | 5.2 | 5.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| 960/970 N. Coast/Nechako | 7.3 | 8.2 | 7.1 | -0.9 | 0.2 |
| 980 Northeast | - - | - - | - - | - - | - - |
| Vancouver CMA | 3.7 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 0.0 | -0.4 |
| Victoria CMA | 3.3 | 3.0 | 2.9 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Abbotsford (Matsqui) | 4.9 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 1.3 | 0.2 |
Strategic Services
HRSDC Regional Office
300 West Georgia Street,
Vancouver, B.C. V6H 1R1
