The unemployment rate in greater sa国际传媒 remained unchanged between August and September, staying at 4.7 per cent.
However, the labour pool - a measure of all those working or actively looking for work, fell by nearly 1,000 people, to 116,000. Since the total population rose slightly, the drop in the size of the labour pool could indicate some people have begun discouraged in their search for work and paused those efforts.
Of the four sa国际传媒 cities where the jobless rate is tracked by Statistics Canada, Victoria has the lowest rate at 3.4 per cent. The rate is 6.3 per cent in Vancouver and 6.4 per cent in Abbotsford-Mission.
sa国际传媒sa国际传媒 jobless rate is more than double the level it was a year ago. In September 2023, the rate was just 2.1 per cent.
Job creation in sa国际传媒 under the current NDP government has become an issue in the election campaign, with the BC Conservatives and industry groups saying private sector job growth has been essentially flat the last few years.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen five years of zero percent growth in this province while the size of government has grown by 33 per cent,鈥 Gavin Dew, the only one of four BC Conservatives who鈥檝e attended recent election forums, said during a debate hosted Tuesday by the Chamber of Commerce.
Between January and August of this year, the number of private sector jobs in sa国际传媒 dropped by 11,700. In the past five years, there have been five public sector jobs created in sa国际传媒 for every new private sector job.
A September poll by the Angus Reid Institute found seven of 10 British Columbians think NDP Premier David Eby has done a 鈥減oor job鈥 of protecting their standard of living.
Across Canada, the unemployment rate declined for the first time since January, to 6.5 per cent, StatsCan reported in their regular monthly bulletin. The economy added 47,000 new jobs across the country.
NDP candidate Brenda Bailey said 23,600 new full-time jobs have been created in sa国际传媒 this year, and 64,300 since David Eby became leader of the party two years ago.聽
鈥渟a国际传媒sa国际传媒 unemployment rate is six per cent, significantly below the national average of 6.5 per cent, and Albertasa国际传媒 unemployment rate of 7.5 per cent,鈥 Bailey said. 鈥渟a国际传媒 also has the highest average wages in the country, surpassing Alberta this month.鈥
