In their Economic Release BCREA reported on changes to the employment levels in BC and Canada. For Canada employment fell by two million jobs moving the unemployment rate from 7.8% to 13%.
The unemployment rate would have been 17.8% if adjusted to reflect those wanting to work and had recently worked, but were unable to work due to the pandemic. Approximately 3.8 million people have some type of attachment to a specific job and were not working because of the pandemic.
For BC, April saw are reduction of 264,000 jobs moving the unemployment rate from 7.2% to 11.5%. Three-quarters of the reduction included full-time work. Compared to a year ago, employment is down 421,000 (-16.4%) jobs.
All sectors, except utilities, showed a reduction in jobs.
