Metro Kelowna’s unemployment rate has either fallen or remained steady from June to July for the last seven years.
There was no such summer improvement this year.
The city’s jobless number jumped half a percentage point last month, checking in at 4.4 per cent on Friday when Statistics Canada released its Labour Force Survey. It also marked the first time in 2024 that Kelowna’s unemployment rate increased.
The region lost 2,300 jobs in July, although the number of people who were eligible to work dropped by 1,700 as well. In the big picture, however, Kelowna still has the seventh lowest unemployment rate among Canada’s 37 metro areas.
It was a similar situation over the entire Thompson-Okanagan region, as its jobless rate jumped 0.8 per cent to 5.6 per cent.
The national job market is weakening, according to the data, as the country lost 2,800 jobs overall and the unemployment rate held steady at 6.4 per cent.
Amidst historically high interest rates, Canada’s unemployment rate has climbed 0.9 per cent over the last year and job vacancies have plummeted.
The latest data suggests young people and recent immigrants, however, have been among the most affected by deteriorating economic conditions.
Among students between the ages of 15 and 24 returning to school in the fall, 51.3 per cent of them were employed last month, down a staggering 6.8per cent from a year ago.
Statistics Canada says that’s the lowest employment rate for returning students since July 1997, outside of July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The slowdown in the Canadian job market has also been particularly felt by recent immigrants, as their unemployment rate has climbed 3.1per cent on an annual basis to 12.6per cent in July.
By comparison, the unemployment rate for people born in Canada rose 0.5per cent over the last year to 5.6per cent in the month.
Brendon Bernard, a senior economist at hiring website Indeed, said young people and newcomers have been disproportionately affected by the economic slowdown because employers are hiring fewer workers, rather than laying employees off.
“Youth and recent newcomers to Canada are a bit more cyclically sensitive to the ups and downs of the job market. But what's also going on is both groups (are) experiencing rapid population growth,” Bernard said.
The increase in unemployment is especially stark for recent immigrant youth, who face a jobless rate of 22.8 per cent. That’s up 8.6 per cent from a year ago.
The softening job market however doesn't appear to be affecting wage growth yet as average hourly wages continued to grow at a strong pace, rising 5.2per cent from a year ago.
“It’s good news for those in stable employment,” Bernard said. “They’re seeing their paycheques rise at a pretty solid pace. But for those out of work, that’s sort of cold comfort.”
The Bank of Canada has signalled it’s increasingly concerned about job market conditions. Governor Tiff Macklem said last month that the central bank’s decision to cut its key interest rate again was driven in part by a desire to boost economic growth.
—With files from The Canadian Press
