the rennie brief: labour market - July 14, 2020

the rennie brief: labour market - July 14, 2020

THE LABOUR MARKET the rennie brief

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: CANADIAN EMPLOYMENT BOOMS IN JUNE

• After achieving some gains in May, employment surged in June, with Canada adding almost 1 million jobs and BC adding 118,000 • While national and provincial unemployment rates fell, Metro Vancouver’s rose—despite the region adding almost 68,000 jobs—as more job seekers flooded into the market • More jobs and more job seekers are features of economic recovery, with the region’s employment rate rising from 52.3% to 55.1%

14 JULY 2020

Canada, BC, and Metro Vancouver all experienced a surge in jobs in June. It’s a good start, with the (re-)expansion expected to continue over the coming months, albeit at a more tempered pace.

Unlike the unemployment rate, which can paradoxically rise as employment grows (just as it did this past month as Metro Vancouver added almost 68,000 jobs), the employment rate (calculated as the number of jobs as a share of the adult population) is a more direct measure of the extent to which an economy’s potential labour pool is being utilized. The higher the employment rate, the more highly-functioning is the economy (generally-speaking), and vice versa. Notably, the employment rate here in Metro Vancouver rose from 52.3% in May to 55.1% in June—clearly a move in the right direction. That being said, we still have a ways to go, as the employment rate remains well below its 12-month average through February 2020 of 64.7%. So while it is easy to viewMetro Vancouver’s rising unemployment rate as a sign that the economic recovery has yet to take hold here, our market is currently characterized by rising employment and a growing number of people actively looking for work. In fact, June’s 81,000-person growth in the region’s labour force was also the highest on record. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OUR MARKET? The June jobs >Page 1

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