June 23, 2010

British Columbia’s Lower Mainland sees spike in construction employment

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

Construction employment in Canada remained level in May, while the number of people working in the industry increased significantly in the Lower Mainland of B.C.

Statistics Canada reported that employment decreased by 10,000 in May, but compared with July 2009, employment is up 2.0 per cent.

Construction employment in the Lower Mainland-Southwest region grew by 109,800 persons in May, which represents an increase of 5.4 per cent compared to April.

“Regional construction employment continues to edge higher and has very likely seen the bottom for this cycle,” said Keith Sashaw, president of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association.

“May’s gain was larger than normal.”

Province wide, seasonally adjusted construction employment levels grew 0.5 per cent in May to 198,000.

Compared with May 2009, the number of people employed in B.C. construction was up 1.6 per cent, or 3,000 persons.

“June construction employment will likely see further gains since the industry is entering a seasonal upturn period which should last until September before declining into the winter months,” said Sashaw.

Employment in Alberta increased by 15,000 in May, which is the second straight month of growth in the province.

This lowered the unemployment rate by 0.8 percentage points to 6.6 per cent.

With these recent gains, employment in the province has increased by 0.5 per cent since July 2009.

Total employment in Canada increased by 25,000 in May, which is the fifth consecutive monthly increase.

This increase builds on the massive 108,700 jobs created in April, which put the economy on the right track heading into the second quarter of 2010.

“There was little change in construction and manufacturing in May,” said the Statistics Canada report.

“Since July 2009, there has been solid employment growth in construction (83,000 or 7.3 per cent), while employment in manufacturing has been stable.”

Since the start of the upward trend in July 2009, employment has risen by 1.8 per cent or 310,000.

The unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points to 8.1 per cent, as more people participated in the labour market.

“Canada’s recovery has outperformed expectations with the labour market pumping out jobs at a healthy clip because the economy grew at a stronger than expected pace in both the fourth quarter of 2009 and first quarter of 2010,” said Dawn Desjardins, assistant chief economist with RBC Economics.

“We look for the unemployment rate to continue to drift lower although it is likely to remain above its pre-recession level as workers, who became discouraged during the economic downturn, return to the labour force.”

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