A look at Prince George's labour force statistics for the past five years has Initiatives Prince George research analyst Tara Bough feeling upbeat for job seekers for the year to come.
Highlights for Bough begin with an increase in the city's working age population for the fourth year in a row, to 68,100 in 2010 from 66,200 in 2007.
"And when you look at that number, that's the highest it's been since 2003," Bough said of the 2010 total.
At 51,200, the total labour force - those working or unemployed but seeking jobs - was the highest since 1998 while the number of employed, at 47,200, was the highest it's been since 1996.
The unemployment rate averaged 7.8 per cent in 2010, a big improvement over 11.5 per cent for 2009, but still the second highest since 2006. But Bough's focus is on the employment rate, which stood at 69.3 per cent, the fourth highest in the 23 years of numbers available from Statistics Canada.
What's more, the participation rate was 75.2 per cent, tied with 1996 for the highest rate for a year.
"When we look at this astronomically high employment rate, to me that's an indication that we have people moving to Prince George from other areas because of employment opportunities," Bough said. "And that is different from anything we've seen in any previous recession, where there wouldn't have been the opportunities here and you would've seen people flowing outwards."
What does this say about 2011?
"I think this says very positive things about 2011, I think there is a lot of activity brewing just in terms of new job opportunities," Bough said.
Just don't expect them all to come in one fell swoop.
"What's probably the biggest contributor to our employment increase is not that 400 jobs from a new sawmill, it's the business that employs 20 people hiring another two," Bough said. "That may not seem like a lot but when it's happening straight across the entire economy, that makes a huge difference."
