B.C. ‘stands alone’ on slumping private sector employment, business group warns

A British Columbia business group is warning that the province’s economy is becoming increasingly dependent on public sector jobs.

The Business Council of B.C. says based on data in July’s Labour Force Survey, B.C. has added just 5,300 new private sector jobs since July 2022. At the same time, the province’s public sector payroll has grown by 63,000.

“This is not sustainable. At the end of the day, the private sector creates all of the revenue the government collects in order to support the expansion of public sector payroll,” Business Council of B.C. chief economist Ken Peacock told Global News.

“We’ve essentially seen a flatlining of hiring in the private sector. … the weakness is quite widespread with only a couple sectors in the economy, professional services being one of them, showing growth in private sector employment.”

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Peacock said B.C. “stands alone” compared to other provinces when it comes to the disparity. Manitoba and Saskatchewan have added five new private sector jobs for every one public sector position, and Ontario has added 2.1. British Columbia, by contrast, has added 0.2 private sector jobs per public sector jobs.

B.C. Finance Minister Katrine Conroy said the statistics don’t paint a full picture, saying years of under-investment in key sectors are to blame.

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“We had a real deficit in public sector jobs, we hired more nurses, we need new teachers,” she said.

Provincial labour market statistics show that since 2022, B.C. has added about 10,000 jobs in educational services and about 40,000 in health care and social assistance.

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But critics say the province isn’t doing enough to attract investment in the private sector, pointing to payroll taxes like the Employer Health Tax, expanded sick days for workers and uncertainty around land base decisions.

“B.C. is no longer a competitive jurisdiction with all of these costs layered on,” BC United Finance Critic Peter Milobar said.

According to the July Labour Force Survey, B.C. shed 10,300 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.5 per cent but remained second lowest in Canada.