The Surrey Board of Trade’s review of the April 2021 Labour Force Statistics is released.
“BC’s job recovery stalled in April 2021, particularly impacting certain service industries with circuit breaker restrictions as of March 30, 2021 and extended to at least the end of the May long weekend,” said Anita Huberman, CEO, Surrey Board of Trade.
BC employment dropped by -43,100 or -1.6% over the last month. The BC economy is only -0.9% down (-23,200 jobs) from February 2020 job levels and has rebounded by +387,400 jobs or +17.4% since the lowest levels in April 2020.
· May 2021 might also be expected to show a lull in growth given restrictions and uncertainty will have been in place for most of the month.
· While the number of unemployed British Columbians has dropped by -46.1% or -169,900 since the highest level in June 2020, there are still 57,000 more unemployed persons or 40.2% more than in February 2020.
· While BC’s unemployment rate tipped up 0.2 percentage points in April 2021 to 7.1% (but still lower than the 8.1% national rate), it is still higher than the pre-pandemic level of 5.1% in February 2020.
“Vaccines must be rolled out more rapidly in BC and Canada and governments, public health, businesses, workforces and communities must continue to work together to expedite recovery and develop policies that reflect this new reality and effectively expand business and work activities.”
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MORE INFORMATION:
SURREY BUSINESS LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVE
BC Labour Force Survey Data
Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, April 2021 (Released May 7, 2021)
Overall – Canada
· The April 2021 Labour Force Survey (LFS) data reflects labour market conditions during the week of April 11 to 17, 2021.
· While COVID-19 cases, especially those from variants of concern, rose and public health measures were tightened in several provinces, employment in Canada dropped by 207,000 jobs (-1.1%) and the national unemployment rate increased 0.6 percentage points to 8.1%.
· Most of this job loss was in BC (-43,000 or -1.6%) and Ontario (-153,000 or -2.1%). While the goods sector employment changed little since March, three industries most vulnerable to public health restrictions suffered significant losses:
– Retail trade lost -84,000 jobs in April 2021;
– Accommodation and food services declined by -59,000 jobs and it accounts for two-thirds (70.9%) of the overall recovery gap of -503,000 in jobs, compared with February 2020; and,
– Information, culture and recreation decreased employment by -26,000.
· Employment in Canada increased by +15,000 jobs in each of: public administration; professional, scientific and technical services; and finance, insurance and real estate.
· Both full-time (-129,000 or -0.8%) and part-time (-78,000 or -2.3%) employment declined in April 2021. Self-employment decreased slightly by -9,700 or -0.3%.
· The number of long-term unemployed in Canada (those unemployed for 27 weeks or more) rose to 486,000 (an increase of +21,000 or +4.6%) in April 2021.
· Canadians working from home increased by +100,000 in April 2021, to 5.1 million persons still working from home that month (27.4% of total employment).
· Driven by losses in accommodation and food, education and retail, total hours worked in Canada dropped by -2.7%.
· Employment among youth aged 15 to 24 declined by -101,000 jobs or -4.2% over the last month, mostly driven by those in BC and Ontario.
· The unemployment rate increased substantially for two vulnerable workforce groups concentrated in accommodation and food services. The rate increased by +4.1 percentage points to 13.6% among Southeast Asian Canadians and by +1.4 points to 6.3% among Filipino Canadians.
Overall – BC
· BC’s job recovery stalled in April 2021, particularly impacting certain service industries with “circuit breaker” restrictions as of March 30, 2021 and extended to at least the end of the May long weekend. BC employment dropped by -43,100 or -1.6% over the last month. The BC economy is only -0.9% down (-23,200 jobs) from February 2020 job levels and has rebounded by +387,400 jobs or +17.4% since the lowest levels in April 2020.
· May 2021 might also be expected to show a lull in growth given restrictions and uncertainty will have been in place for most of the month.
· While the number of unemployed British Columbians has dropped by -46.1% or -169,900 since the highest level in June 2020, there are still 57,000 more unemployed persons or 40.2% more than in February 2020.
· While BC’s unemployment rate tipped up 0.2 percentage points in April 2021 to 7.1% (but still lower than the 8.1% national rate), it is still higher than the pre-pandemic level of 5.1% in February 2020.
Goods-Producing Industries
· BC’s goods-producing industries gained a small +2,900 jobs or +0.6% since March 2021 but remains a bright spot in BC. It has recovered to only being down by -5,000 jobs (-1.0%) compared to February 2020, and growth of almost 50,000 jobs (+9.9%) since the low of April 2020.
· Biggest gains in the last month were in manufacturing (+4,900 or +2.8%) and resources (+2,700 or +5.2%).
· This is contrasted with a drop of -4,200 jobs (-1.9%) in BC construction and of -1,800 (-7.3%) jobs in BC agriculture over the last month. These two industries are down from pre-pandemic employment levels by 31,300 (-12.5%) and -5,800 (-20.2%), respectively.
Service-Producing Industries
· Employment in the service-producing industries in BC decreased by -46,000 jobs (-2.1%) in April 2021, driven by drops in accommodation and food services (-21,900 or -12.3%), other (mostly personal) services (-18,800 or -5.4%), educational services (-4,800 or -2.5%), and retail (-4,600 or -1.1%).
· All service industries in BC have seen significant recoveries in jobs since April 2020, totaling a bounce-back of +383,900 jobs or a +21.5% gain. In total, the service sector in BC is only down -0.9% or -18,300 jobs since February 2020.
· This masks losses since the pandemic particularly in 2 industries and 3 others:
– Accommodation and food services is down -45,300 or -22.5% since February 2020;
– The jobs in the high-touch other services industry are down by -27,500 or -7.6%;
– Employment is also down since the pandemic in retail (-13,400 or -3.3%), financial services (-6,500 or -3.7%), and transportation & warehousing (-6,100 or -4.3%).
· The consistent “star” in pandemic job growth in BC has been professional, scientific and technical services (PSTS) – up +6,800 or +2.7% in April 2021, up +40,600 since a low in March 2020 and up +38,000 or an impressive +17.0% since before the pandemic.
· While education services and health care jobs are down over the last month (-4,800 or -2.5% and -1,400 or -0.4% respectively), driven by public sector growth and pandemic responses, they and public administration are up by +5,600 or +3.1%, +20,200 or +6.1% and +16,500 or +14.4% respectively.
· The BC and Canadian service sector is a tale of two labour markets – one with new labour demand created by the pandemic and with knowledge workers less impacted and able to work remotely, versus one with highly impacted businesses and front-line workers.
Occupations
· Employment declines were seen in 6 of the 10 occupational categories with increases in the other 4 in April 2021:
– Management jobs dropped by -19,900 or -8.2%; sales and service jobs decreased by
-13,200 or -2.2%; and art, culture, recreation & sport (ACRS) lost -10,700 or -10.8% of its employment;
– Smaller declines in jobs were seen in manufacturing (-4,500 or -6.1%) and natural and applied sciences (-4,100 or -1.6%); and,
– The biggest occupational winners over the last month were natural resources/agriculture at +7,800 or +15.3% and business, finance and admin jobs at +10,900 or +2.5%.
· Interestingly, the ACRS category’s unemployment rate dropped -3.8 percentage points to 1.4% despite a -10,700 job loss, meaning significant numbers left the labour force. Despite a drop of -2,100 jobs in trades, transport & equipment operator positions in April 2021, this category’s unemployment rate dropped almost 2 percentage points to 4.7%, the lowest since January 2020.
· As of April 2021, all occupational categories in BC, except management (down -19,300 or -8.0%) and manufacturing (up merely 300 jobs), are appreciably above the April 2020 employment levels, with job recovery being led by: sales and service (+153,900 or +34.5%); natural and applied sciences (+76,400 or +43.2%); business and finance (+74,900 or +20.4%); ELSCG (+43,500 or +17.4%); and ACRS (+44,800 or +17.9%).
· Compared to pre-pandemic levels in February 2020, the “tale” of two types of occupations remains:
– Led by sales and service jobs (-79,900 or -11.7%), it and trades and transport, management and ACRS job loss represents a deficit of -134,700 jobs since the pandemic began in BC;
– However, natural resources jobs are up +28.4% (+13,000); natural and applied science jobs are up by +47,500 or +23.0%; and business and finance and education, law, social, community and government categories are each +23,500 higher than in February 2020; and,
– Health occupations has seen a +6.4% increase with its +12,500 more jobs since then.
Regions
· Most development and metropolitan regions in BC fluctuated in employment up or down in small proportions in April 2021. One exception was growth of +2,800 jobs in the Kootenay region, a +3.5% increase.
· While Vancouver and the Mainland/Southwest regions are still down from February 2020 job levels (-16,300 or -1.1% and -14,300 or -0.8%, respectively), Kootenay, Cariboo and North Coast/Nechako regions are all up in employment since the pandemic (+5,400 or +6.9%, +4,000 or +4.9% and +2,700 or +6.6%, respectively).
· One small troublesome area is Kelowna (-2,600 or -2.4%) and the Thompson/Okanagan (-7,800 or -2.7%) regions since February 2020. The region dropped -3,300 jobs or -1.2% over the last month.
Age, Gender and Other
· The youth (15-24) unemployment rate in BC dropped further in April to 11.6% but is still above the 9.4% rate of February 2020. The female youth rate dropped to 12.3% but remains appreciably higher than its rate of 6.9% before the pandemic. Females 25 years of age and older had a 5.8% unemployment rate in April 2021, marginally higher than the 4.6% rate in February 2020.
· The youth unemployment rate in BC in April 2021 now is less than double that of workers 25 and over (11.6% versus 6.3%) for the first time since 2018.
· In terms of employment levels, less BC youth were employed in April 2021, down by -26,700 or -7.3% since March; almost two-thirds of this was from a drop in male youth jobs (-17,200 or -9.1%).
· Full-time employment in BC decreased by -5,700 or -2.8% in April 2021, and part-time jobs decreased by -37,400 or -6.1%. Employment for men in the last month dropped by -14,300 full-time and -15,500 part-time jobs, and for women it increased full-time by +8,600 and decreased part-time by -21,900.
· The BC employment has -45,400 less full-time jobs in April 2021 compared to February 2020
(-2.2%) and +22,100 more part-time jobs (+4.0%); however, the ration of part-time as a percentage of total is only slightly higher at 22.0% (compared to 21.0% pre-pandemic).
· In terms of ‘class of worker’, private sector and self-employment have been more significantly impacted than public sector jobs.
– BC lost -33,200 self-employed jobs in the last month, a drop of -6.8%; self-employment is down by -21,900 or -4.6% since February 2020;
– 10,200 private sector jobs were lost in BC in April 2021, a decrease of -0.6% and by -53,100 or -3.1% since the pandemic.
· Conversely, public sector employment is up by +51,700 or +10.8% since February 2020.
Summary
· BC’s job recovery stalled in April 2021, particularly impacting certain service industries with “circuit breaker” restrictions as of March 30, 2021 and extended to at least the end of the May long weekend. BC employment dropped by -43,100 or -1.6% over the last month. The BC economy is only -0.9% down (-23,200 jobs) from February 2020 job levels and has rebounded by +387,400 jobs or +17.4% since the lowest levels in April 2020. Note that May 2021 might also be expected to show a lull in job growth given restrictions and uncertainty.
· While the number of unemployed British Columbians has dropped by -46.1% or -169,900 since the highest level in June 2020, there are still +57,000 more unemployed persons or +40.2% more than in February 2020.
· BC’s goods-producing industries gained a small +2,900 jobs or +0.6% since March 2021 but remains a bright spot in BC. It has recovered to only being down by -5,000 jobs (-1.0%) compared to February 2020 and growth of almost +50,000 jobs (+9.9%) since the low of April 2020.
· Employment in the service-producing industries in BC decreased by -46,000 jobs (-2.1%) in April 2021, driven by accommodation and food services (-21,900 or -12.3%), other (mostly personal) services (-18,800 or -5.4%), educational services (-4,800 or -2.5%), and retail (-4,600 or -1.1%).
· Employment declines were seen in 6 of the 10 occupational categories:
– Management jobs dropped by -19,900 or -8.2%; sales and service jobs decreased by
-13,200 or -2.2%; and art, culture, recreation & sport (ACRS) lost -10,700 or -10.8% of its employment; and,
– The biggest occupational winners over the last month were natural resources/agriculture at +7,800 or +15.3%, and business, finance and admin jobs at +10,900 or +2.5%.
· Most development and metropolitan regions in BC fluctuated in employment slightly up or down in April 2021, with growth of +2,800 jobs in the Kootenay region, a +3.5% increase.
· The youth (15-24) unemployment rate in BC dropped further in April to 11.6% but is still above the 9.4% rate of February 2020. The female youth rate dropped to 12.3% but remains appreciably higher than its rate of 6.9% before the pandemic. The youth unemployment rate in BC in April 2021 now is less than double that of workers 25 and over (11.6% versus 6.3%) for the first time since 2018.
· Full-time employment in BC decreased by -5,700 or -2.8% in April 2021, and part-time jobs decreased by -37,400 or -6.1%. The BC employment has -45,400 less full-time jobs in April 2021 compared to February 2020 (-2.2%) and +22,100 more part-time jobs (+4.0%); however, the ration of part-time as a percentage of total is only slightly higher at 22.0% (compared to 21.0% pre-pandemic).
· BC lost -33,200 self-employed jobs in the last month, a drop of -6.8%; self-employment is down by -21,900 or -4.6% since February 2020; and -10,200 private sector jobs were lost in BC in April 2021, a decrease of -0.6% and by -53,100 or -3.1% since the pandemic. Conversely, public sector employment is up by +51,700 or +10.8% since February 2020.
· The BC and Canadian service sector is a tale of two labour markets – one with new labour demand created by the pandemic and with knowledge workers less impacted and able to work remotely, versus one with highly impacted businesses and front-line workers.
· Despite a stalled job recovery in April 2021, the SBOT remains confident that BC is well-positioned fiscally, economically and public health-wise to survive further adverse labour market impacts of this pandemic if COVID-19 case growth is blunted, vaccinations are ramped up and business and workplace restrictions are loosened before summer – optimism will then prevail.
· As the SBOT has previously cautioned, “economic recovery will require effective public policies and support, innovative business practices, increased digital transformation, business resilience and a collaborative approach to economic recovery among governments, businesses, workers and public sector service providers.”
· Vaccines must be rolled out more rapidly in BC and Canada and governments, public health, businesses, workforces and communities must continue to work together to expedite recovery and develop policies that reflect this new reality and effectively expand business and work activities.
Source: BC Stats – Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, April 2021. Released May 7, 2021. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/statistics/employment-labour-market/lfs_data_tables.pdf.
Composed by:
Kerry Jothen, B.A., M.A., CEO + Principal, HUMAN CAPITAL STRATEGIES
kjothen@humancapitalstrategies.ca
and
Anita Huberman, CEO, Surrey Board of Trade
