The national unemployment rate hit a record low in March, but the number remains high in Central Okanagan. Statistics Canada reported on Friday that the metropolitan area of Kelowna had an unemployment rate of 6.7% in March, down four tenths of a percentage point from February, but still higher than the usual area limit of about 4.5%. Kelowna’s unemployment rate was 7.1% in both January and February. The most densely populated area in Okanagan usually has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, but in March it was No. 29 on the list of 37 metropolitan centers. Despite the high rate, Krista Mallory, director of the Central Okanagan Economic Development Committee, believes it is too early to draw conclusions. “What we are hearing from employers is that demand for labor remains strong,” Mallory said on Friday. “Job listings increased by 42.5 percent in the region last year compared to 2020. Therefore, we do not hear any slowdown in job demand from employers jokes.” Mallory noted that the Statistics Canada Labor Force Survey advises organizations such as COEDC to review 12-month data. The survey analyzes about 200 households and monitors them for about six months, alternating new and old media each month. In other words, Mallory said the data could be another anomaly. In two weeks, COEDC will publish its own quarterly report from a labor data company that it believes will be a better indication of where the Central Okanagan work landscape actually stands. “What we hear from our employers is that they continue to create jobs and look for employees — some sectors more than others,” says Mallory. “But we do not hear from any industry that there has been any slowdown in this demand for workers.” The Thompson Okanagan unemployment rate rose to 6.2% in March from 5.9% in February. Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 5.3% in March from 5.5% a month earlier as the economy added 72,500 jobs. The Statistics Canada said it was the lowest unemployment rate since comparable data became available in 1976 and below its previous low of 5.4% in May 2019. It was also a reversal from the early days of the pandemic in May 2020, when the unemployment rate reached a record 13.4%. CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham said oil-producing provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan were not full-time before the pandemic struck and may have room for more jobs that could reduce unemployment. “There is room for the unemployment rate to fall slightly,” he said. “This means that there is little room for employment growth to continue to outpace population growth, but not to the extent it has recently.” The decline in the unemployment rate last month was gains in various sectors. Key to the earnings were 24,500 women over 55 who found work and 35,300 men between the ages of 25 and 54 who took up jobs, mostly part-time. The tightening of the labor market meant that average hourly wages were up 3.4% year-on-year in March compared with an annual increase of 3.1% in February. The rate fell short of the annual rate of inflation in February, which RSM Canada economist Tu Nguyen said was well on its way to its highest point since the early 1980s. “We are in an overheated economy approaching full employment,” he said, noting that wages could rise further. – with files from The Canadian Press
