Okanagan economy drowning in layoffs

More than 7,000 out of work since coronavirus lockdown

More than 7,000 Kelowna residents have lost their jobs in the past two months as COVID-19 dealt a body blow to the city’s economy.

The official unemployment rate in the Kelowna area leaped to 8.1% in April from 5.9% in March.

That meant there were 5,300 additional job losses last month, on top of the 2,000 layoffs that occurred in March as the pandemic’s economic effect was just getting underway.

But total job losses in Kelowna in the last two months are even higher than the official figures because the overall labour force — a measurement of those who are working or actively looking for work — shrunk from 108,000 in March to 105,000 in April.

Most of those 3,000 people are not even looking for work, recognizing the futility of doing so, yet their ranks are not included in the official unemployment statistic. Kelowna’s official unemployment rate of 8.1% is more than double the rate of 3.8% seen in April 2019.

Nationally, the Canadian economy lost almost two million jobs in April, a record high, as the closure of non-essential services to slow the spread of COVID-19 forced businesses to shutter temporarily.

The national unemployment rate is now 13% — and that does not include those who have stopped looking for work and thus excluded themselves from the labour force. If those people were counted, the unemployment rate would be almost 18%.

In all, more than one-third of the entire Canadian labour force didn’t work or had reduced hours in April, an “underutilization rate” that was more than three times higher than in February before the pandemic struck.

In B.C., the official unemployment rate more than doubled, from 5% in March to 11.5% in April.

“The April labour force numbers provide a clearer picture of the severe impacts of COVID-19 on the economy in B.C. and across Canada,” B.C. Finance Minister Carole James said in a statement.

“Every sector of the B.C. economy has been hit hard and many B.C. families are reeling,” James said.

The government’s COVID-19 action plan, which among other things provides for a $1,000 emergency benefit for displaced workers, will help get the economy moving as business begin to re-open in the weeks ahead, James said.

But B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson called on the government to do more, and suggested measures such as tax cuts and a short-term commercial rent relief plan.

“The re-opening plan from the government doesn’t include any new supports or actions to help people currently struggling financially,” Wilkinson said.

Some of the hardest-hit sectors across the Canadian economy included retail, hotels, restaurants, and bars.

The losses in the service sector continued in April, with employment down 1.4 million, or 9.6%.

Those industries are particularly important to the Valley economy.

The hospitality sector is Kelowna’s fourth largest, accounting for almost 10% of all local jobs, according to the Central Okanagan economic development commission.

Nationally, small companies — defined as those with less than 20 employees — have shed 30.8% of workers, medium-sized firms have let 25.1% of workers go, and large companies have seen employment decline by 12.6 %.