Prince George's unemployment rate continues to remain about as low as it's going to get.
Just 5.8 per cent of the city's active workforce was unemployed in April according to Statistics Canada labour force numbers released yesterday, as the city entered its third straight month of sub-six-per-cent unemployment.
A rate below six per cent is a sign the local economy is running at a pace healthy enough that jobs are reasonably easy to come by. What's more, Initiatives Prince George analyst Tara Bogh noted there has been little change in the accompanying numbers - the number holding down jobs remained steady at 47,200 and those unemployed but seeking work held at 2,900.
"That's probably a good thing because we have seen a lot of movement, perhaps people moving into retirement and leaving the labour force, over the last few months so that seems to have stabilized," Bogh said.
The picture is also an improvement over April 2010, when the unemployment rate was 7.0 per cent, and the number looking for work was 3,700 although there were 49,000 employed either full-time or part-time. The city's working age population has declined by 2,500 people since then.
While forestry has stabilized thanks to demand for B.C. lumber in China, Bogh pointed to mining-related activity as the major driver.
There are currently three operating mines, one under development, one proposed and 16 major exploration projects in the Omineca mining region surrounding Prince George, according to Bogh. For northern B.C. as a whole, the numbers rise to 10 operating mines, three under development, 12 proposed and 69 major exploration projects.
Myrte Turner of M. Turner and Associates employment agency said the city's economy has become much more diversified and the forest industry has "done a great job in terms of finding alternate markets to the U.S."
Along with the resource industries, Turner said the demand for workers in hospitality, accommodation and services is picking up and shows people have the money to spend in restaurants and on discretionary items.
"I have a sense that we're not in a boom phase but we're not in a bust phase either," she said.
With so many projects on the books, Turner said the demand for skilled labour will continue but also emphasized that job seekers need to be flexible.
"If you're unemployed right now and you want to get the same job that you had before, well maybe that's not there for you," she said. "But, given that we're dealing with the older kind of a workforce, they've got lots and lots of transferable skills that they can take to another job and people need to look outside of maybe where they've traditionally looked in the past."
For young people, she said, there are many opportunities but education still matters.
"People need more certificates, whether it's trade certificates or whether it's even just things like first aid, and they really need to have that Grade 12, employers are becoming adamant about Grade 12," Turner said.
