BCPB Home > Benchmarks > Rankings > Core Target 3: Employment Rate

Core Target 3: Employment Rate

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

 (Updated March 5, 2008)
Year

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Rank

5

5

5

6

6

6

5

5

5

4

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 and 2007. The Canadian average for 2007 was 73.6 percent.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba were well ahead of the average. British Columbia pulled ahead of Ontario to earn fourth place in 2007. The last time it was in fourth place was the period 1992 through 1997.

Relative to the change in population, BC created the most jobs in the country in 2005 and was second best in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, BC created three-quarters as many jobs as Ontario, but with only one-third the population base.

Why It's Important
The employment rate is an effective measure of the rate of labour utilization. Indeed, high labour utilization traditionally accompanies strong economic activity.

North American Comparison

In a North American comparison, BC ranked 39th in the employment rate of 61 subnational jurisdictions in 2006. BC sits comfortably above the mid-point in the approximately 20 percentage point difference between bottom ranked Newfoundland & Labrador and top ranked Alberta.

BC was in 48th place in 1997 and saw further deterioration to a low of 52nd in 2001 but strong employment growth produced the province's best showing in the last 17 years.







International Comparison

BC has relatively high employment when compared to OECD countries. In 2006, BC ranked seventh out of 31 jurisdictions in its employment to population ratio. Its employment rate came in about 12 percentage points below first place Iceland, but a good 27 percentage points ahead of last place Turkey.

Notes
North America: For this comparison, people aged 15 years and over in Canada are included for both population and employment, while in the United States people aged 16 years and over are included.

>> Other Economy, Innovation & Education targets and indicators