Greater Victoria’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to four per cent in May from April’s 4.4 per cent as the nation as a whole marked its lowest rate since the 1970s.
The drop put the capital region in seventh place in the country. The Quebec part of the Ottawa-Gatineau region had the lowest rate at just 2.6 per cent.
Some employers in Greater Victoria are so desperate for workers they have trimmed their hours because of lack of staff.
B.C. Ferries is experiencing frequent sailing cancellations because of crew shortages and is among employers offering cash incentives for new workers, and hospitality employees are particularly in demand Victoria amid hopes for a lucrative tourist season.
The capital region had 215,700 people employed last month, Statistics Canada said in its monthly job report on Friday.
Construction saw employment increase to 16,200 last month from 14,600 in May of 2021, the federal agency said, while manufacturing rose to 8,700 from 7,300 in the same month last year.
Transportation and warehousing climbed to 8,500 workers from 7,300 year-over-year. Professional, scientific and technical services rose as well, to 21,200 workers from 19,100 in May 2021.
Declines were seen in educational services, which dropped to 19,700 in May from 21,500 for the same month in 2021. Accommodation and food services dropped by almost 3,000, to 14,500 workers from 17,400 a year ago.
Overall, B.C.’s employment rate dropped to a three-year low of 4.5 per cent — numbers not seen since July 2019.
“There are now 100,000 more people working in B.C. than prior to the pandemic,” said Ravi Kahlon, minister of jobs, economic recovery and innovation, who said the province is leading Canada’s economic recovery.
The province gained 5,100 new jobs in May. “B.C. saw a shift from part-time to full-time jobs with gains in the private sector,” he said.
B.C. forecasts that more than one million new jobs will be created in the next 10 years.
“Right now there are more jobs than people in the province,” he said.
Efforts focus on closing the skills gap, training more people for the jobs of the future, and working with other countries to create opportunities for work in B.C. in areas such as agri-tech and mass timber, he said.
Nationally, the economy added 40,000 jobs in May, driven by a gain in full-time jobs as the labour market continued to tighten and wages pushed higher, Statistics Canada said.
The increase came as the unemployment rate fell to 5.1 per cent, the lowest rate since at least 1976 which is as far back as comparable data goes. The unemployment rate was 5.2 per cent in April.
TD Bank senior economist James Orlando said as Canadians headed out to patios and hit the road for overdue vacations, employers continued to search for workers to meet heightened demand.
“This has job vacancy rates at record levels, making it clear that the Canadian economy is operating beyond full employment,” Orlando wrote in a report.
Statistics Canada said Friday average hourly wages for all employees rose 3.9 per cent on a year-over-year basis in May, compared with an increase of 3.3 per cent in April.
The jobs report follows a decision by the Bank of Canada last week to raise its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 1.5 per cent in an effort to help bring inflation back under control.
The annual pace of inflation rose to 6.8 per cent in April, the fastest year-over-year rise in 31 years.
“With more people employed and wage growth climbing, the strength in domestic demand will be sufficient to keep inflation as a thorn in the side of the Bank of Canada,” Orlando wrote.
The overall gain in jobs in May came as the number of full-time jobs climbed by 135,000, but part-time employment fell by 96,000.
The services sector saw a gain of 81,000 jobs as accommodation and food services added 20,000 positions.
The number of professional, scientific and technical services jobs grew by 21,000, while educational services gained 24,000 positions and retail trade added 34,000 jobs in the month.
Transportation and warehousing lost 25,000 jobs, while the number of finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing jobs fell by 19,000.
Meanwhile, the goods-producing sector lost 41,000 jobs in the month as 43,000 manufacturing jobs were lost.
Long-term unemployment, people who had been searching for work or had been on temporary layoff for 27 weeks or more, accounted for 19.7 per cent of total unemployment in May compared with 15.6 per cent in February 2020.
— With a file from The Canadian Press
