The unemployment rate in greater Kelowna fell slightly in February but it still remains among the highest in Canada.
A total of 800 more people were working in the Central Okanagan last month in January, with the jobless rate falling from 7.2% to 7.1%.
But the local unemployment rate is still the eighth-highest among the 37 metropolitan areas for which job statistics are tracked by Statistics Canada.
Kelowna’s jobless rate is also third-highest in Western Canada, lower only than Calgary (8%) and Lethbridge (7.5%). It’s the highest rate in BC significantly higher than in Victoria and Abbotsford, which are each at 4.2%.
The unemployment rate in Kelowna would have been higher if not for a drop in the region’s total labor force, from 113,200 to 112,200. That occurred even though the area’s population rose by 400 people last month, a sign that some people have become discouraged looking for work and temporarily paused their search.
Nationally, it was a brighter picture as Canada’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.5% in February from 6.5% in January. The economy added 337,000 jobs, as the unemployment rate fell below pre-pandemic levels.
This is the lowest it’s been since it was 5.7% in February 2020 just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
BC’s rate of 4.9% is at “a level not seen since before the pandemic began,” Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon said in a news release. “In February, we created 21,000 new jobs,” the release said.
Kelowna’s current position at the higher end of the unemployment table contrasts with the situation that played out through the latter half of 2020 and into 2021. For much of that period, Kelowna had either the lowest or second lowest jobless rate in the country.
In November 2021, the Kelowna jobless rate was 4.4%, still fourth lowest in Canada, but it has risen significantly since then.
