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BC/Yukon Region - Labour Force Survey - April 2008
- Highlights
- Aboriginal Persons off Reserve
- 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. The province added 6,400 jobs, which was enough to cover off the increase in labour force. The end result was an unchanged unemployment rate (4.3%).
- Over the past year, provincial employment grew by 77,200 jobs, or 3.4%. BC's labour force also continued to grow. As a result, our participation rate has reached 67.0%, a rate not seen since January 1995.
- Manufacturing employment continued to decline, employing 182,300 last month, its lowest level since May 1999. Over the past year, the industry lost 28,900 jobs, a decrease of 13.7%. In contrast, employment was up in Accommodation and Food Services (+17,200) and Retail and Wholesale Trade (+11,000).
Aboriginal Persons off Reserve
BC has 96,700 aboriginal persons who are living off reserve. Their rate of unemployment averaged 9.9% over the past year. That's more than double the unemployment rate for non-aboriginal persons in BC.
Of the 34,000 aboriginal youth who are living off reserve in BC, their unemployment rate averaged 12.7%. Although that is a significant improvement over the 25% rate that this group experienced three years ago, it's still double the non-aboriginal rate.
As well as a relatively high unemployment rate, aboriginal youth have a significantly below-average rate of participation in the labour market. That could be an indicator that some aboriginal youth are discouraged over their employment prospects, thereby dropping out of the labour force altogether.
Since 2005, the overall labour market situation for aboriginal persons has shown some improvement. This can be attributed to job gains in the Construction industry, which employs an above-average number of aboriginal persons.
| 15+ | 15-29 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| aboriginal | non-aboriginal | aboriginal | non-aboriginal | |
| Population | 96,700 | 3,485,700 | 34,000 | 833,500 |
| Labour Force | 63,600 | 2,313,300 | 21,800 | 612,900 |
| Employed | 57,400 | 2,219,600 | 19,000 | 575,900 |
| Unemployed | 6,300 | 93,700 | 2,800 | 37,100 |
| Unemployment Rate (%) | 9.9 | 4.0 | 12.7 | 6.0 |
| Participation Rate (%) | 65.8 | 66.4 | 64.0 | 73.5 |
| Employment Rate (%) | 59.3 | 63.7 | 55.9 | 69.1 |
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
| April 2008 | March 2008 | April 2007 | MC (#) | MC (%) | YC (#) | YC (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population 15+ (000) | 3,626.9 | 3,619.9 | 3,557.1 | 7.0 | 0.2 | 69.8 | 2.0 |
| Labour Force (000) | 2,429.4 | 2,422.2 | 2,353.6 | 7.2 | 0.3 | 75.8 | 3.2 |
| Employed (000) | 2,324.3 | 2,317.9 | 2,247.1 | 6.4 | 0.3 | 77.2 | 3.4 |
| Emp-Full-Time (000) | 1,859.6 | 1,843.7 | 1,794.6 | 15.9 | 0.9 | 65.0 | 3.6 |
| Emp-Part-Time (000) | 464.7 | 474.2 | 452.5 | -9.5 | -2.0 | 12.2 | 2.7 |
| Unemployed (000) | 105.1 | 104.4 | 106.5 | 0.7 | 0.7 | -1.4 | -1.3 |
| Unemployment Rate (%) | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.5 | - | -0.2 | ||
| Participation Rate (%) | 67.0 | 66.9 | 66.2 | 0.1 | 0.8 | ||
| Employment Rate (%) | 64.1 | 64.0 | 63.2 | 0.1 | 0.9 |
| April 2008 | March 2008 | April 2007 | MC (#) | MC (%) | YC (#) | YC (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Industry (000) | 2,324.3 | 2,317.9 | 2,247.1 | 6.4 | 0.3 | 77.2 | 3.4 |
| Goods-Producing | 498.0 | 511.5 | 494.7 | -13.5 | -2.6 | 3.3 | 0.7 |
| Agriculture | 35.7 | 38.7 | 32.2 | -3.0 | -7.8 | 3.5 | 10.9 |
| Forestry, Fishing, Mining, Oil & Gas |
49.1 | 46.9 | 48.4 | 2.2 | 4.7 | 0.7 | 1.4 |
| Utilities | 13.2 | 15.7 | 8.7 | -2.5 | -15.9 | 4.5 | 51.7 |
| Construction | 217.7 | 219.4 | 194.2 | -1.7 | -0.8 | 23.5 | 12.1 |
| Manufacturing | 182.3 | 190.8 | 211.2 | -8.5 | -4.5 | -28.9 | -13.7 |
| Service-Producing | 1,826.3 | 1,806.3 | 1,752.4 | 20.0 | 1.1 | 73.9 | 4.2 |
| Trade | 363.8 | 364.4 | 352.8 | -0.6 | -0.2 | 11.0 | 3.1 |
| Transport & Warehousing | 133.4 | 130.2 | 124.4 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 9.0 | 7.2 |
| Fin, Ins, Real Estate, Leasing | 142.2 | 134.1 | 145.2 | 8.1 | 6.0 | -3.0 | -2.1 |
| Prof, Sci, Tech Services | 177.9 | 174.1 | 163.0 | 3.8 | 2.2 | 14.9 | 9.1 |
| Business, Bldg, Other Support Services | 102.0 | 106.0 | 95.9 | -4.0 | -3.8 | 6.1 | 6.4 |
| Education Services | 162.0 | 154.8 | 157.6 | 7.2 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 2.8 |
| Health/Social Ass't | 233.1 | 240.6 | 241.6 | -7.5 | -3.1 | -8.5 | -3.5 |
| Info, Culture & Rec | 120.0 | 118.0 | 121.9 | 2.0 | 1.7 | -1.9 | -1.6 |
| Accom & food serv | 184.8 | 178.9 | 167.6 | 5.9 | 3.3 | 17.2 | 10.3 |
| Other Services | 100.7 | 100.9 | 87.3 | -0.2 | -0.2 | 13.4 | 15.3 |
| Public Admin | 106.3 | 104.1 | 95.0 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 11.3 | 11.9 |
| April 2008 | March 2008 | April 2007 | MC (#) | MC (%) | YC (#) | YC (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 2,324.3 | 2,317.9 | 2,247.1 | 6.4 | 0.3 | 77.2 | 3.4 |
| Employee (000) | 1,906.4 | 1,907.0 | 1,823.2 | -0.6 | 0.0 | 83.2 | 4.6 |
| Public | 422.7 | 414.4 | 402.4 | 8.3 | 2.0 | 20.3 | 5.0 |
| Private | 1,483.7 | 1,492.6 | 1,420.9 | -8.9 | -0.6 | 62.8 | 4.4 |
| Self-Employed (000) | 417.8 | 410.9 | 423.8 | 6.9 | 1.7 | -6.0 | -1.4 |
| April 2008 | March 2008 | April 2007 | MC (#) | YC (#) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All - 15+ | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 0.0 | -0.2 |
| Adults - 25+ | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.9 | -0.1 | -0.2 |
| Adults - Men - 25+ | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Adults - Women - 25+ | 3.5 | 3.9 | 4.1 | -0.4 | -0.6 |
| Youth - 15-24 | 7.7 | 6.8 | 7.6 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| Youth - Men - 15-24 | 8.7 | 6.6 | 7.7 | 2.1 | 1.0 |
| Youth - Women - 15-24 | 6.7 | 7.0 | 7.6 | -0.3 | -0.9 |
| Aboriginal Persons - 15+1. | 11.4 | 12.2 | 11.1 | -0.8 | 0.3 |
| Aboriginal Youth - 15-241. | 11.0 | 14.4 | 16.9 | -3.4 | -5.9 |
| Very Recent Immigrants - 15+2. | 7.8 | 7.1 | 8.9 | 0.7 | -1.1 |
| Recent Immigrants - 15+2. | 7.0 | 7.2 | 5.7 | -0.2 | 1.3 |
| Established Immigrants - 15+2. | 3.6 | 3.9 | 4.1 | -0.3 | -0.5 |
| April 2008 | March 2008 | April 2007 | MC (#) | YC (#) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 6.1 | 6.0 | 6.2 | 0.1 | -0.1 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 13.2 | 12.6 | 13.2 | 0.6 | 0.0 |
| Prince Edward Island | 11.2 | 10.4 | 9.7 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| Nova Scotia | 7.8 | 7.9 | 8.2 | -0.1 | -0.4 |
| New Brunswick | 8.3 | 8.5 | 7.5 | -0.2 | 0.8 |
| Quebec | 7.6 | 7.3 | 7.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Ontario | 6.3 | 6.4 | 6.6 | -0.1 | -0.3 |
| Manitoba | 3.8 | 4.3 | 4.8 | -0.5 | -1.0 |
| Saskatchewan | 4.3 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Alberta | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.4 | -0.1 | -0.1 |
| British Columbia | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 0.0 | -0.2 |
| Abbotsford | 5.1 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| Vancouver | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.7 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Victoria | 3.1 | 3.3 | 3.5 | -0.2 | -0.4 |
| April 2008 | March 2008 | April 2007 | MC (#) | YC (#) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.4 | 0.0 | -0.1 |
| British Columbia | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| 910 Vancouver Island | 4.6 | 5.2 | 5.3 | -0.6 | -0.7 |
| 920 Lower Mainland - SW | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 930 Thompson Okanagan | 5.6 | 5.9 | 4.5 | -0.3 | 1.1 |
| 940 Kootenay | 2.5 | 3.4 | 5.7 | -0.9 | -3.2 |
| 950 Cariboo | 7.7 | 6.8 | 5.2 | 0.9 | 2.5 |
| 960/970 N. Coast/Nechako | 7.9 | 7.1 | 8.6 | 0.8 | -0.7 |
| 980 Northeast | 4.3 | - - | - - | - - | - - |
1. Aboriginal Persons living Off-Reserve. These data are 3-month adjusted averages
2. Very recent immigrants: in Canada <5 years; Recent immigrants in Canada 5-10 years; Established immigrants in Canada >10 years. These data are 3-month unadjusted averages
Strategic Services
HRSDC Regional Office
300 West Georgia Street,
Vancouver, B.C. V6H 1R1
