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).

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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.

Key Labour Market Data for Aboriginal Persons off Reserve in BC

	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