It’s accepted wisdom that from an economic standpoint, British Columbia is outperforming every other province when it comes to growth and employment.
In fact, the province is not expected to be stumble off that lofty perch anytime soon. This coming year should see B.C. continue to lead the country on a number of economic fronts.
READ MORE: B.C.’s ‘stellar’ economy to attract wave of workers this year
A big reason for this is the fact that the dramatic slump in commodity prices has hit most other provinces harder. Alberta, for example, has gone from being an economic powerhouse to a reeling basket case.
But peel back the economic onion a few layers, and a not entirely rosy picture is painted for British Columbia.
The most noticeable, and worrisome trend is that when it comes to job creation, part-time employment and not full-time work has been, recently at least, primarily responsible for the growth in new jobs.
Take last month, for example. According to Statistics Canada, the number of jobs in B.C. increased by an apparently impressive 14,000 over the month previously.
But a closer look shows what really happened: a whopping 20,000 new part-time jobs were created, but that was partially offset by the loss of 6,000 full-time jobs. And this was not a one-month phenomenon.
Now, looking at the jobs picture on a month to month basis can be misleading. But checking the numbers on a year to year basis is more telling, and a glance at what happened between January, 2015 and January, 2016 tells the story, and it’s a revealing one.
While 16,800 new full-time jobs were created in the past year, that’s a growth rate of barely one per cent. Where the significant growth occurred was on the part-time side: almost 32,000 new jobs, an increase of about seven percent.
This means the number of new part-time jobs is outpacing full-time ones at a 7-1 ratio.
The implications of this trend are worrisome, to say the least. Among other things, full-time work usually pays an employee much higher compensation than part-time workers receive, since a benefits package of some sort is often included.
As well, part-time work in the retail trade and service industries (the largest employers of part-timers) pay relatively lower wages, and often pay the miserly minimum wage.
In other words, a full-time workforce contributes more to the local economy than does a part-time one.
Who are the people filling the growing number of part-time jobs? It’s likely that people under the age of 35 — the so-called “millennial” generation — are filling the bill here in increasing numbers.
For example, I know of at least a half dozen recent post-secondary education graduates who not only have a part-time job, but in fact have two or three of them, and not necessarily in their chosen field of study.
This may be the face of the workforce of the future. As the massive baby boomer generation eases into retirement in increasing numbers, many of their jobs are being divided into part-time ones or are disappearing altogether, as the economy changes.
Well-paying jobs in the natural resource sector — particularly mining, forestry and natural gas production — have declined in significant numbers, largely due to that huge slump in world-wide commodity prices.
READ MORE: B.C. firms hiring workers from Alberta oilpatch
The inevitable move by governments against carbon emissions will undoubtedly partly shackle this sector in the future. It may only represent less than 10 per cent of the province’s gross domestic product, but the natural resource sector is an economic lifeline for many towns throughout the Interior and the North.
Hopefully those jobs come back, but in the meantime the shrunken work force in this sector may partly explain for the relatively low increase in full-time employment.
On the other hand, an expected surge in tourism this summer (as Americans come north to take advantage of their stronger dollar) will likely see a further boost in part-time employment in the service sector. The millennials will latch onto those jobs in large numbers.
So the next time Statistics Canada releases their jobs data, peel back the layers and check to see where any significant growth is coming from.
The B.C. economy may indeed be leading the country, but the age of part-time work for a majority of younger people appears to be fast approaching.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC. This is reprinted from his weekly column with Glacier Media.
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