Photo: The Canadian Press
Unemployment in Central Okanagan fell sharply last month.
According to the Labor Force data released on Friday by Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate in the capital’s Kelowna area in April was 5.3%. This marks the third consecutive monthly decline from the recent peak of 7.2% in January and represents a relatively large decline of 1.4% compared to March.
The percentage is still high by Kelowna’s standards, as it is usually between 4% and 5%, but the figure seems to be beginning to better reflect the labor situation in the region. It is still tied for the 24th highest score among the 37 metropolitan areas of Canada.
Last month, Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission Manager Christa Mallory said the region’s high unemployment could be an anomaly recently, as the survey analyzed approximately 200 households and tracked them for about six months, changing every month. new and old.
“What we hear from our employers is that they continue to create jobs and look for workers – some sectors more than others,” Mallory said last month. “But we don’t hear from any sector that there has been any delay in this demand for workers.”
The unemployment rate across Thompson Okanagan was 6.1% in April, down one-tenth of a percentage point.
The improvement in the number of jobs in Kelowna in April was part of a national trend in which Canada’s unemployment rate reached a new record low of 5.2%, even as the pace of job creation slowed to 15,300. of Kelowna added 2,000 jobs in April.
Statistics from Canada also noted that the adjusted unemployment rate, which includes people who wanted a job but did not look for it, was 7.2% in April, below the pre-pandemic level of 7.4%.
The average hourly wage increased by 3.3% on an annual basis in April compared to an annual profit of 3.4% in March.
Statistics from Canada found that the share of those earning less than $ 20 an hour in April was 25.9% of all employees, down 35.5% in April 2019. Meanwhile, employees earning less $ 40 or more per hour represented 24.5% of employees, compared to 18.0% three years earlier.
The unemployment rate in April fell to its lowest point since at least 1976, which is even further behind comparable figures, as the number of jobs in vocational, scientific and technical services rose by 15,000 in April and the category public administration increased by 17,000.
The number of retail workers fell by 22,000 in April and the number of construction workers by 21,000.
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