Ranks of jobless shrink to new low
Unemployment rate falls to 3.3% in Kelowna — just over half what it was a year ago
A year ago, there tended to be about 80 technology job openings at any time on Accelerate Okanagan’s job board.
Today, there’s double that.
“It shows there’s demand for talent and the tech sector is growing quickly,” said Accelerate’s director of operations, Brea Lake.
“Over the past two years, there’s been 64 per cent growth in the tech workforce to 12,500 workers.”
Lake commented on Friday, the same day Statistics Canada released December figures showing record-low unemployment rates in both Kelowna and the country. The jobless rate is 3.3 per cent in Kelowna and 5.6 per cent nationally.
A year ago in Kelowna, the unemployment rate was 6.2 per cent.
A five per cent unemployment rate is considered full employment by most.
When the rate dips below five per cent, virtually everyone who wants to work is working or about to find a job immediately.
Those who are left unemployed aren’t trying very hard to find a position or they have barriers to work, such as disability, child care, criminal record or sketchy work history.
Lake stopped short of saying difficulty finding skilled workers might slow tech’s trajectory.
“It’s been mitigated in our favour because tech workers want to move to Kelowna from hubs like Vancouver for more affordable housing and a recreational lifestyle,” she said.
However, that may not be the case in all sectors. Many retailers, hospitality and service businesses that pay close to the minimum wage find it hard to hire and keep workers.
Seasonal jobs in agriculture are also hard to fill, which is why temporary foreign workers have been brought in from Mexico and Jamaica to help with Okanagan crops.
“Initially when you hear the unemployment rate is a record-low 3.3 per cent, you say: ‘Wow, how exciting,’” said City of Kelowna director of business and entrepreneurial development Robert Fine.
“But what it means is the challenge for employers of finding and retaining workers is very real. In fact, labour shortage is the biggest challenge facing our economy.”
If companies aren’t fully staffed, they can’t operate at full capacity, eventually creating a drag on growth.
“I don’t think the economy has slowed yet as a result, but it certainly has the potential to,” said Fine.
“In the meantime, Kelowna is an entrepreneurial community and business owners are finding ways to keep up, be it using more technology, changing the way they and their employees work, and changing how they hire.”
Some of those changes in hiring include seeking out skilled immigrants, hiring students or the underemployed and training them, offering flexible schedules to attract, hiring on contract and convincing retirees to work part time.
At 3.3 per cent, Kelowna’s unemployment rate is the second lowest in Canada, behind only Guelph, Ont., which has a jobless rate of 2.3 per cent.
Other cities with rock-bottom rates include Victoria at 3.6 per cent, Quebec City at 3.9 per cent, Hamilton at 4.3 per cent and Vancouver at 4.4 per cent.
The cities with the highest number of unemployed in December were Calgary with 7.6 per cent, St. John’s, N.L., at 7.5 per cent and St. Catharines-Niagara Falls, Ont., with 6.9 per cent.