One of the key performance measures used to judge Premier Christy Clark’s government is the labour market.
The B.C. Liberals set themselves up to be assessed by that standard in the 2013 election campaign. And that’s what’s going to happen increasingly as the next one starts to take shape this year.
Clark created the B.C. Jobs Plan as a political theme in the fall of 2011 and turned jobs, jobs, jobs into one of the dominant themes of her successful campaign. The government produced a four-year progress report last year and concluded about what you’d expect: It’s working.
A more impartial review was released Friday by Statistics Canada. And it indicates the B.C. Liberals do have something to brag about. In a year of uncertainty and unease about the economy, B.C. posted some good numbers on jobs. They’re not great, but they are better than most other provinces.
StatsCan’s latest monthly labour force survey shows almost nothing in the way of changes month-to-month. Employment nationally was up fractionally, and unemployment was unchanged.
But the summary of the year as a whole concludes that B.C. had the fastest employment growth in the country. The employment rate rose 2.3 per cent (52,000 jobs). Employment has been on an upward trend since April. The 52,000 jobs is almost a third of the 158,000 new jobs created nationally last year.
Ontario actually saw more new jobs created, but B.C.’s rate of increase was higher.
Despite the increase, the unemployment rate rose 1.2 percentage points, to 6.7 per cent, as more people searched for work.
The thrust of Clark’s jobs message was keyed to liquefied natural gas development. It hasn’t happened yet, and there won’t be any major LNG hiring before the next election, even if investment decisions are confirmed. So the question shaping up is whether people who were assured a jobs bonanza will accept relatively strong jobs growth in a weak economy as good enough.
NDP MLA Shane Simpson said provincial governments don’t really deserve the credit or the blame for jobs numbers, because global markets and the Canadian dollar have more to do with it. But provinces have to cope with the impact of job trends, and B.C. isn’t doing enough to take the edge off economic impacts. Wage growth is down and a lot of new jobs are part time, so “people aren’t keeping up.”
Alberta is usually the first comparison when looking at B.C. performance. That tendency will get more acute with an NDP government in place there, as the partisan camps look to spin statistics to their advantage. StatsCan said the unemployment rate there topped seven per cent for the first time in five years. Employment dropped a half-point over the year.
B.C. Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said the numbers are volatile, and bump up and down but prove that it pays to stick to a long-term strategy. She said growth in the youth sector and manufacturing are encouraging. The unemployment increase can be blamed on steady in-migration, more people coming or coming home to B.C., she said.
Just So You Know: Jan. 24 will be the 51st anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill. Victorians have been marking that anniversary for years now in Beacon Hill Park, beside a tree he planted there in 1929. Readers are invited to help make the upcoming event the best yet. People like me, who find him an endlessly fascinating historical figure, should drop by the park on Sunday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m. for a brief but heartfelt tribute to a man who is owed a great deal.
Stirring speeches about his character. Vignettes of the amazing life he led. A free raffle of Churchill books and memorabilia. (I claim partial responsibility for driving up the price of Churchill knickknacks over the years.) And of course, a guest appearance by the great man himself.
Gather around the hawthorn tree in the Mayor’s Grove at the foot of Quadra Street.
