Photo: Contributed
Despite a slight increase in the unemployment rate in Central Okanagan, 1,800 more people were employed in August than in July.
According to monthly figures released by Statistics Canada on Friday, 109,000 people were employed last month.
In addition to the number of people in employment, the total number of people in employment rose by 2,100 in August.
This led to a slight increase in the unemployment rate from 5.6 percent in July to 5.7 percent in the previous month.
Kelowna and Central Okanagan have the eighth lowest unemployment rate among the country’s census metropolitan areas.
In BC, only Victoria has a lower unemployment rate of 4.4 percent.
The unemployment rate in the Thompson-Okanagan region also rose in August from 5.1 in July to 5.4 percent.
At the provincial level, the unemployment rate fell from 6.6 percent to 6.2 percent, while BC was the only province employment metric better than pre-pandemic levels for the third straight month.
The national unemployment rate also fell from 7.5 percent to 7.1 percent.
Despite the positive numbers, according to CIBC senior economist Royce Mendes, not all is rosy and indicates that the participation rate also fell in August.
According to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate would have been 9.1 percent in August, up from 9.5 percent in July if it had included Canadians who wanted to work but weren’t looking for work in the calculations.
“The economy is far from completely healed,” Mendes wrote in a press release.
“While employment is only 0.8 percent below its pre-Covid level according to the labor force survey, other economic indicators point to further weakness. The country is also in the middle of a fourth wave that will slow growth this fall. “
