By Greg Fry

Kamloops unemployment rate drops year-over-year

Jul 6, 2018 | 10:53 AM

KAMLOOPS — The unemployment rate continues to move in the right direction in Kamloops.

According to Statistics Canada the rate fell year-over-year from 8.8 per cent in June 2017 to 5.8 per cent in June 2018. The unemployment rate is also down month-over-month from 5.9 per cent in May 2018.

“With that decline, as would be expected, we also noticed an increase in the employment rate,” says Analyst Lahouaria Yssaad.

“The employment rate is basically the ratio of employment to population. So, that’s the number of employed as a share of the population of working age. That’s 15 years of age and older and that rate increased from 56.4 per cent in June 2017 to 59.5 per cent in June 2018.”

She says that means approximately 70,000 people were working last month compared to about 56,000 in June 2017.

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The Kamloops unemployment rate is slightly higher than the provincial average of 5.2 per cent.

The B.C. rate is still the lowest in Canada, two tenths of a point lower than Quebec’s 5.4 per cent rate.