Greater Victoria continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, according to numbers released Friday by Statistics sa国际传媒.
The federal agency鈥檚 monthly labour force survey showed Victoria鈥檚 unemployment rate was 3.4% in February, ranking it second behind only Guelph (2.1%) in sa国际传媒. Kelowna was third on聽the list of Canadian cities at 3.5%.
While the rate remains low, the labour pool continues to rise on the south Island, as the labour force was 208,400 strong in February, with 201,300 people working.
A year ago, that labour pool numbered 197,300, with 190,900 employed.
Statistics sa国际传媒 said the information, culture and recreation sector added 4,000 jobs over the past 12 months, while public administration also added 4,000 and the professional scientific and technical services sector added 3,000.
The sectors seeing significant losses over the past 12 months were healthcare, which lost 3,800聽positions and retail and wholesale trade, which shed 3,500 jobs.
British Columbia continued to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in sa国际传媒 at 5% as it added 19,500 full-time jobs over the past year.
sa国际传媒 Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Competitiveness Michelle Mungall said average hourly wages rose 30 cents to $29.13 in February and that over the past year average hourly wages have increased by $2.12 (7.8%) to lead the country.
鈥淗igher wages combined with the 19,500 full-time jobs that have聽been created over the past year are further proof that our blueprint for building a prosperous sa国际传媒 is working,鈥� she said.
Nationally, the unemployment rate nudged up one-tenth of a percentage point to 5.6% despite the economy adding 30,300 net new jobs in February.
The numbers beat expectations for growth amid concerns about the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Statistics sa国际传媒 said the gain was led by Quebec, which posted its third consecutive month of job聽gains and saw its unemployment rate fall to 4.5%, the lowest level for the province over the past four decades of comparable data.
Overall, the national unemployment rate also hovered near a 40-year low, even as it nudged up slightly as more people looked for work.
Economists on average had expected the agency would report an overall increase of 10,000 jobs for February and an unemployment rate of 5.6%, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
鈥淭he underlying message is that the economy was doing relatively well before it ran into the storm of the virus,鈥� BMO chief economist Douglas Porter said.
鈥淭his is actually three months in a row where we鈥檝e seen pretty sturdy job growth in sa国际传媒.鈥�
