The September 2022 Surrey Labour Market Intelligence Report has been released by the Surrey Board of Trade.
“Tracking labour market trends in an ongoing way is important to ensure our policy framework is focused on developing a suitably skilled workforce, a broad availability of good-quality education as a foundation for future training, and a close matching of skills supply to the needs of enterprises and labour markets. It enables workers and enterprises to adjust to changes in technology and markets, and to anticipate and prepare for the skills needs of the future,” said Anita Huberman, President & CEO, Surrey Board of Trade. “This will fuel innovation, investment, economic diversification and competitiveness, as well as social and occupational mobility.”
Employment in Surrey in August 2022 was an estimated impressive 4.0%, or 11,793 jobs, above employment before the pandemic in February 2020, and almost 37,000 higher than the lowest job levels in April 2020.
Health care, natural resources, public administration, and tech sectors are leading the Surrey jobs recovery. An exception to knowledge-based growth is that the education, law and social, community and government services sector is still down by almost 1,100 jobs in Surrey, -4.1% below February 2020.
A bright spot for the first time since the start of the pandemic is the information, culture and recreation sector in Surrey, with over 2,800 more jobs than in February 2020, an almost 30% increase.
While finance, some services, trade and construction employment continue to lag, some sectors have shown significant recovery thanks to the elimination of COVID-19 restrictions. Even the hard-hit accommodation and food services sector is almost back to pre-pandemic employment levels.
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Anita Huberman
Surrey Board of Trade
604.340.3899
