B.C.’s unemployment rate ticked up 0.6 percentage points in March, reaching 6.7 per cent — the highest level since 2016, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Really brutal numbers,” said Gavin Dew, the B.C. Conservative jobs critic, in an interview.
Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s jobs minister, blamed global uncertainty from tariffs and the war in Iran.
“We’ve got tariffs on one side, and now we’ve got a war that’s creating uncertainty,” he told Black Press on Friday (April 10) morning.
Dew isn’t buying this argument.
“People are really tired of this act that this government puts on, where everything is always someone else’s fault, everything is always Donald Trump’s fault,” he said. “Everything is always an excuse.”
For the first time in recent years, B.C.’s unemployment rate matches the national level. In Canada as a whole, the rate was unchanged, with a gain of 14,000 jobs nationally. Those numbers are too small to move the needle federally.
B.C., on the other hand, lost more than 19,000 jobs, with the majority of losses concentrated in the services-producing sector. There were 9,700 job losses in wholesale and retail trade; 7,200 in finance, insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing; and 5,800 in professional, scientific, and technical services.
All ages and genders experienced losses, but young people are more impacted than core working-age British Columbians. The unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 rose from 13.8 per cent to 15.6 per cent.
Kahlon said this trend tracks nationally, and he hoped recent changes to the temporary foreign worker program would help. One of the new rules requires companies to target young workers before hiring foreign ones.
“We’ve got a high percentage of youth that are looking for work, and now we need to do the work to connect the employers to the workers they need,” he said.
Kahlon was optimistic still, highlighting efforts underway to encourage major projects and natural gas development, as well as the upcoming World Cup, as future job creators that will help turn the tide for B.C. He expects that by next year, the province will lead the country in economic growth.
He also expects future gains from his trips to Asia with Premier David Eby — with another one to China upcoming — and his work to reduce interprovincial trade barriers.
While Dew acknowledges global uncertainty is having an impact — “We can’t stick our head in the sand,” he says — he also thinks B.C. is in a weak position, and needs to do more, particularly for small businesses.
He says that major projects are good, but don’t necessarily impact consumer and business confidence.
“Yes, we need major projects, but we also need a grassroots economy, and that requires rebuilding economic confidence and consumer confidence, starting at the bottom,” he said.