Though it’s still a long way from its normal level, Victoria’s unemployment rate fell to 5.4 per cent in June, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent labour force survey.
Victoria trails only Trois-Rivières (4.4 per cent), Quebec City (5.1) and Sherbrooke (5.1) for the lowest rate in Canada.
The monthly survey, released Friday, showed Victoria followed the trend in B.C., with employment increasing to pre-COVID levels.
Last month, the city employed 212,200, compared with 187,400 at the same time last year, and 194,200 in 2019 before the word pandemic became part of the everyday vernacular.
“It’s definitely positive news. B.C. is leading the country in our economic recovery and we are the only province in the country with more employment now than we had pre-pandemic,” said provincial Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon in an interview.
Provincewide, 2.63 million people were employed last month, compared with 2.57 million in June 2019.
Kahlon credited people following health guidelines along with strong relief measures from both Ottawa and B.C. for the robust numbers.
At the same time, however, the province has more unemployed people now than it did pre-pandemic.
Statistics Canada said B.C. had 194,300 unemployed people in June, up from 121,700 in June 2019, and has an unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent compared with 4.5 per cent at the same time in 2019.
In Victoria, 12,000 people were unemployed last month, up from 8,000 in June 2019. The 5.4 per cent unemployment rate in Victoria compares with 4.0 per cent in June 2019.
Kahlon, who was born and raised in Victoria, said the numbers aren’t unexpected given the city’s dependence on international tourism for a lot of summer employment.
The minister noted the labour force survey was taken a month ago, when the province was still in the second step of its reopening plan. It’s now in Step 3, with far fewer restrictions, including the opening up of cross-Canada travel.
He said as more people start to move around the country, he expects to see the labour market improve further.
“And when we see international tourism come back, it will have a bigger impact in Victoria than in other communities,” he said.
Kahlon agreed the labour shortage, which plagued the province pre-pandemic, has only been put on hold by COVID and is likely to have an impact on the province as it continues its economic recovery.
He said a host of measures will be required to tackle the problem, including increased immigration, improved childcare to free up parents to return to the workforce, improving the skills of existing workers and an increase in minimum wage to make it worthwhile to get off the sidelines and back into work.
Kahlon noted that during the pandemic, there was an increase in people migrating to B.C. from other provinces, which could also ease the pressure on the labour force.
“It means they see opportunity and hope here,” he said.
Nationally, the survey showed the Canadian economy nearly recovered the jobs lost during third-wave lockdowns as restrictions rolled back and businesses expanded their payrolls faster than expected in June.
Statistics Canada said the economy added 230,700 jobs last month after posting losses in April and May, when public health restrictions were tightened to slow the pandemic.
The national unemployment rate fell to 7.8 per cent for June compared with 8.2 per cent in May, which Statistics Canada said was the lowest of the pandemic since the 7.5 per cent recorded in March.
“We’re at a significant phase of reopening that might be an inflection point for our economy and jobs, where this kind of stop and start of job gains and job losses might not be taking place anymore,” said Trevin Stratton, chief economist at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “While this initial rebound is very promising, over the longer term there are still some issues that we need to address.”
Hiring in June was concentrated in part-time positions that rose by 263,900, bringing it basically back to pre-pandemic levels and driven by jumps in jobs in the hard-hit retail and food services sectors.
The 101,000 jobs increase in the accommodation and food services sector was the largest jump since last July, with Quebec, Alberta and B.C. accounting for most of the increase. Ontario grew more slowly because of restrictions on indoor dining.
The result for June left the country about 340,000 jobs, or almost two per cent, below pre-pandemic employment levels seen in February 2020. Statistics Canada said the employment gap is likely closer to 540,000 jobs when factoring in population growth.
aduffy@timescolonist.com
