Performance Indicator 26: Long-Term Unemployed
Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison |
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| Performance Indicator Twenty-Six tracks the proportion of those unemployed for 52 weeks or longer as a proportion of total unemployed. Lower ratios earn better ranks. |
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| BC ranked ninth in 2010 with a rate of 10.5 percent. BC’s ratio remained below the national average (11.5 percent) due in part to a six percentage point increase in Ontario. |
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| After Ontario, the largest percentage point increases were 5.3 in BC, 5.1 in Alberta and 4.0 in Saskatchewan. Canada has not seen increases this large since the early 1990s. |
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| BC’s long-term unemployment peaked at 12.5 percent in 2003, fell to a low of 4.7 percent in 2008, then experienced a small increase in 2009 and a large one in 2010. |
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International Comparison |
| In 2010, British Columbia ranked fifth and Canada ranked sixth among 33 OECD jurisdictions. Both BC and Canada were well below the average OECD rate of 32.4 percent. |
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| BC fell two positions from its third-place rank in 2009 due to the 5.3 percentage-point annual increase in its rate in 2010. Rate increases in New Zealand and Norway were smaller than in BC, allowing them to move into third and fourth place. |
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| European countries typically have much higher long-term unemployment rates, on average, than non-European OECD members. |
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Why It's Important
Long-term unemployment generally remains high for several years during economic recoveries, even though the unemployment rate rapidly adjusts downward. The last workers laid off are generally the first to return to work when the economy improves. People who have been unemployed for some time, along with less-skilled workers, form a larger proportion of this unemployed population. |
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