Core Target 3: Employment Rate

Core Target Three is the percent of the population (ages 15 to 64) that is employed. The higher the employment rate, the better the rank.

British Columbia exceeded the national average in the employment rate in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The Canadian average for 2008 was 73.7 percent.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba were well ahead of the average. British Columbia took over fifth place from Prince Edward Island in 2004 and fourth from Ontario in 2007. The last time BC was in fourth place was the period 1992 through 1997.

The dispersion in employment rates among the provinces grew in the early 1990s but has since converged to the lowest level in twenty years. British Columbia's rate deteriorated through the 1990s but began to improve in 1999. Average annual growth since then was 0.8 percent although BC's rate dropped by 1.7 percentage points in 2001 and by 0.1 last year.

North American Comparison

BC's employment rate ranking in North America was 25th of 61 in 2008, up from 36th in 2007. Although BC's employment rate remains unchanged from last year's at 63.5 percent, the employment rate decreased in 48 of the other 60 jurisdictions over the same period. This improved BC's position to its best rank in 19 years. BC sits approximately 12 percentage points above bottom-ranked Newfoundland & Labrador and 8.5 percentage points below top-ranked Alberta.

BC's rank is up 27 positions since 2001 thanks to strong employment growth. Aside from Newfoundland & Labrador, the bottom five positions are all held by states.

International Comparison

BC has consistently had high employment relative to OECD countries. In 2008, BC ranked eighth out of 31 jurisdictions in its employment to population ratio. Its rate was 29 percentage points above bottom-ranked Turkey, 7.5 above the OECD average, and 10 below top-ranked Iceland.