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Employment up for Metro Vancouver’s top manufacturers

Columbia’s largest 100 manufacturers have increased their employee base by an average of 3.3% since last year by adding 544 employees to their rosters.
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Columbia’s largest 100 manufacturers have increased their employee base by an average of 3.3% since last year by adding 544 employees to their rosters.

Based on employee numbers, the province’s largest manufacturer is North Vancouver-based Seaspan ULC. The shipbuilding, ship repair and marine transportation company increased its number of B.C. employees by 9.5% or 230, to 2,649 in 2018 from 2,419 in 2017.

Seaspan added more employees since 2017 than any other manufacturer on Business in Vancouver’s list of the biggest manufacturers in Metro Vancouver.

However, it didn’t have the largest percentage increase in employment. Ballard Power Systems Inc. (TSX:BLDP), the Burnaby-based green-energy company, placed 14th on the list and increased its provincial employment by 60.7%, growing to 442 employees in 2018 from 275 in 2017.

2017 was a mixed year for British Columbia’s food producers. Some boasted large increases in provincial employment; others reported large declines.

Sunrise Soya Foods and Earnest Ice Cream each increased their employment base by more than 20%. Sunrise increased its employment by 37.5% to 330 in 2018 from 240 in 2017. Earnest Ice Cream increased its employment by 25% to 150 in 2018 from 120 in 2017.

Otter Farm & Home Co-operative Association had the largest drop in employment of the companies on BIV’s list. Its provincial employment fell 81.7% to 64 employees in 2018 from 350 employees in 2017.

The median employment change for B.C. manufacturers on the list was zero with almost half the companies reporting no change in employment.