43,000 B.C. jobs return, but overall recovery slow
Almost 400,000 lose employment during pandemic
After two months of severe employment losses, B.C. added 43,000 jobs in May as COVID-19 restrictions began to lift and some businesses reopened, Statistics Canada said Friday, but unemployment still climbed to the highest level since the recessions of the early 1980s.
B.C.’s unemployment rate rose to 13.4 per cent from an already dismal 11.5 per cent in April, the highest that it has been since 1984, said Ken Peacock, chief economist for the Business Council of B.C.
Peacock was “a bit surprised, but not terribly,” by the rehiring that showed up in May’s employment numbers, which were compiled by Statistics Canada a week before the official start to Phase 2 of B.C.’s economic restart plan.
“But context is important here,” Peacock said. “Almost 400,000 jobs (were) lost the previous two months, so a 43,000 job gain, while very good news and welcome, it’s kind of a 10-per-cent return or regain of lost jobs.”
And the losses were disproportionately felt in the youth demographic, those between the ages of 15 and 24, where unemployment soared to 29 per cent from 24.2 per cent in April.
“That’s the highest it has ever been for that age cohort,” Peacock said. “It hit 24, almost 25 per cent back in the early 1980s.”
B.C. Finance Minister Carole James commented on the job numbers Friday morning, referring to them as “encouraging signs” in a still volatile job market, but noting total job losses of 353,000 since the start of the pandemic.
James said the province has paid its $1,000 B.C. Emergency Benefit for Workers to more than 510,000 British Columbians.
“As more and more workplaces begin to reopen, there’s reason for increased confidence among consumers, which is critical to our recovery,” James said.
However, the job gains represent the economy “basically treading water,” said Iglika Ivanova, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“I mean, that definitely is good news that we’re not continuing to lose jobs, but the recovery is so small in comparison to the jobs lost in the first two months (of the pandemic locally),” Ivanova said. “We’re quite far from recovering.”
More telling to Ivanova are the statistics on the number of workers who are still employed, but have lost more than 50 per cent of their regular hours, which isn’t that far off at 235,000.
Ivanova also has concerns about how many of the job losses have been concentrated among low-wage workers. Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives data shows that nationally, half of those who earn less than $16 an hour lost jobs that haven’t been restored.
Peacock said his worry for youth unemployment is that it might turn into longer-term, structural unemployment, considering that some sectors won’t be bouncing back any time soon.
International travel is unlikely to return until at least later this year, as well as hospitality related to conventions and meeting, so “these younger people could really face some challenging times.”