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Unemployment moved up in city, region last month |
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Written by Citizen Staff
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Friday, 09 May 2008 |
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WILLIAMS LAKEVANCOUVER ISLANDMILE HOUSE
It was 2.1 percentage points higher than the 5.6 per cent unemployment rate seen just two months before, in February, said Dwayne Prokopowich of Service Canada.
April's unemployment rate was up 3.6 percentage points from the 4.1 per cent that prevailed a year ago.
The last time Prince George had a jobless rate of 7.7 per cent or higher was in March 2006, he said.
Figures are based on a three-month unadjusted moving average.
Last month there were 45,400 jobs held by city residents, down slightly from 45,600 the month before and 1,100 fewer than the 46,500 jobs held by Prince George residents at this time last year, Prokopowich said.
Comparing the average number of jobs over the first four months of this year with the average number during the first third of 2007 creates a somewhat more positive picture. Between Jan. 1 and April 30 this year people in the city held an average of 575 more jobs than during the same period of 2007, a 1.3-per-cent gain.
Looking at each individual month yields a different view as well. This past January there were 2,800 more jobs in Prince George than in January 2007, and in February 2008 there were 1,300 more jobs than in February 2007. As the city moved into spring, however, the outlook changed. In March of 2008, there were 700 fewer jobs than in March 2007, and last month there were 1,100 fewer jobs in Prince George than in April 2007.
""In the first four months of 2008, on average we're still ahead in terms of job creation," Prokopowich said. "However, as of March we're starting to see an actual decline in employment"
Even though comparisons of average employment levels during the first four months of this year with last year's sound good, it is clear that a strong January and February have been offset by decline in March and April, Prokopowich said. Longer mill shutdowns and even mill closures in the region are having an impact, he noted.
In terms of part-time versus full-time, city residents held 36,500 full-time jobs in April, down slightly from 36,800 in March. However, last month's figure was still up by 900 from 35,600 full-time jobs in the city a year ago. Last month there were 8,900 part-time jobs in Prince George, up 100 from 8,800 the month before but down 2,000 from the 10,900 people in part-time work a year ago.
In April the labour force in the city, the total of people working and those actively looking for work, stood at 49,200, up 300 from 48,900 in March and up 700 from 48,500 in April 2007.
"Our unemployment rate went up because of two factors," Prokopowich said. "There were fewer jobs out there, and then there were 300 more people in our labour force -- people working or looking for work."
The unemployment rate for the Cariboo region -- which extends from Mackenzie in the north through Prince George, Quesnel and Williams Lake to 100 Mile House -- was the same as in the city last month, 7.7 per cent. It was up 0.9 of a percentage point from 6.8 per cent in March and 5.2 per cent in April 2007.
Industry-by-industry labour force statistics are not available for the city of Prince George alone. However, the data for the Cariboo region give some indication of where the job losses have come mainly from the manufacturing sector and the transport and warehousing sector.
"These would be directly related to milling operations in the Cariboo, and transport revolves around hauling fibre to the mills," Prokopowich observed. "On the other hand, the loss of jobs in the manufacturing and transport sectors were slightly offset by an increase in construction."
In other regions of B.C. last month the jobless rate was as follows: Vancouver Island (4.6); Lower Maindlan (3.9); Thompson-Okanagan (5.6); Kootenay (2.5); North Coast-Nechako (7.9) and the northeast, which includes the Peace (4.3).
The unemployment rate for the province as a whole, according to the three-month unadjusted moving average method of calculation, was 4.4 per cent in April, and across Canada it was 6.3 per cent last month.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 May 2008 )
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"Well yes, absolutely nobody is working right now, but if we compare that to last year when only 80% of residents were out of work...our year-over-year average is only 90% unemployment, a 10% decline compared to what we're seeing now. And looking ahead to the future, we don't see unemployment climbing above 100%, so we are expecting positive things on the horizon".
Who pays these alchemists to spin this garbage? I'll bet Prokopowich makes between $60-80,000 a year AND a cushy pension just to state the obvious: UNEMPLOYMENT ROSE BECAUSE THERE WERE FEWER JOBS AND MORE PEOPLE WORKING. Man, I will happily repeat the same drivel at the beginning of every month for half that amount...and not even have to leave my current job to do it!