For only the second time in provincial history, British Columbia has recorded a monthly drop in unemployment of 1.1 per cent. By the kind of numbers economists work with, that is a huge drop.
Around 33,000 net new jobs were added to the B.C. economy in September, and Central One Credit Union’s chief economist, Helmut Pastrick, says it’s been a long time since the province has seen this many new jobs in a month.
“This 1.1 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate was only equalled one other time, and that was in the late 1970s,” Pastrick said.
At a jobless rate of 4.2 per cent, B.C. has the lowest in the country.
“It’s a signal that economic growth continues at a good pace, the labour market is reflecting that, we saw strong job growth in September and real job growth has been good for most of this year,” Pastrick said.
However, Pastrick thinks the unemployment rate will go up again in October.
“Next month the unemployment rate will bounce back up to perhaps five per cent.”
Nationally, the economy added 63,300 net new jobs in September, mainly due to an increase of 80,000 part-time jobs. That sent the national unemployment rate down slightly to 5.9 per cent.