BC/Yukon Region - Labour Force Survey - July 2007

• July Employment Shows More Changes Between Full-Time Work and Part-Time
• Employment Rates and Employment Gains by Age and Sex
• 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

July Employment Shows More Changes Between Full-Time Work and Part-Time

In June there was little change in overall employment in British Columbia, but there were some 32,000 fewer full-time jobs and 29,000 more part-time jobs. In July this pattern was reversed, with 25,000 more full-time jobs and 28,000 fewer part-time jobs yielding practically the same total employment. As was observed last month, it is quite likely that these almost equal and offsetting changes were the result of certain workers having their hours of work changed, rather than changing jobs, since many changes were in the same industries.

BC reflected some of the national changes in employment by industry sector. There was a gain of almost 5,000 in professional, scientific and technical services, and a small increase in transportation, and a major drop of 11,000 in education. However, there was no decline here in financial services, and no gains in manufacturing, a sector that has fared relatively well in BC in recent years, but which slipped 4,000 jobs in the last month.

Construction, which has been the principal driver of the province's employment increases since 2003 recorded a seasonally adjusted loss of 11,000 jobs in July, and an unadjusted decline of 5,000. While no one should consider a single month a decisive indicator, the fact is that this booming sector is now just 2% above it's level of a year ago, perhaps signalling that its ability to drive employment upward has largely been felt already.

The small decline in the unemployment rate, from 4.4% in June to 4.1% in July, despite a small drop in total employment was the result of a 0.4% drop in the participation rate. Every region of BC except the North Coast Nechako has an unemployment rate under 5%, and even that region is under 8%, the usual rate for the entire province just a few years ago.

Major Industrial Employment Changes

Employment [across Canada] in the goods-producing sector was up in July, mainly in manufacturing (+20,000) and utilities (+6,000). In the service sector, more workers were added in professional, scientific and technical services (+25,000) and transportation and warehousing (+17,000). Total gains, however, were offset by service sector declines in educational services (-57,000) and finance, insurance, real estate and leasing (-13,000).

Source: Statistics Canada Daily, July 6, 2007

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Employment Rates and Employment Gains by Age and Sex

Over the past twelve months BC has gained 62,000 jobs, an increase of 2.8%. Gains have not been experienced by every age/sex group, however. Women under 25 have actually experienced a reduction in employment of 4,000 jobs, or about 2.4% of their employment level. Both men and women aged 25 years and older have seen their employment increase, by 17,000 among adult women and by 29,000 among adult men. The largest gains, at least in percentage terms, were for young men under 25 whose employment rose by almost 12% from last July, a total of 20,000 more jobs.