Kelowna’s unemployment rate continued to fall in May, as roughly 3,000 more people started work, according to the latest Labour Force Survey.
The unemployment rate dropped to 4.5 per cent in May compared with 5.3 per cent in April, Statistics Canada’s report indicated. In March the number sat at 6.7 per cent, while in February Kelowna had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, coming in at 7.1 per cent.
With 112,000 people now employed, compared with 109,500 a month earlier, the city is now on par with Victoria and Abbotsford-Mission with a 4 and 4.4 per cent unemployment, respectively. Vancouver’s rate is higher, at 5.2 per cent.
Provincewide, the unemployment rate is also 4.5 per cent and there are nearly 100,000 more people working in B.C. now than prior to the pandemic.
“May and June mark the start of many students re-entering the workforce for part-time seasonal employment. This is welcome news for many businesses facing labour shortages, especially in the hospitality and tourism sector,” Ravi Kahlon, minister of jobs, economic recovery and innovation, said in a statement.
“But we know we need to do more. Right now, there are more jobs than people in the province. That’s why we need to redouble our efforts to bring people to B.C. and build on our recovery by investing in the jobs of tomorrow through our StrongerBC Economic Plan.”
Kahlon said more than one million jobs are forecast over the next decade, and the province has made a “generational commitment to close the skills gap and train more people for the jobs of the future.”
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