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 BCPB Home > Benchmarks > Rankings > Performance Indicator 26: Long-Term Unemployed

Performance Indicator 26: Long-Term Unemployed

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

 (Updated March 5, 2008)
Year

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Rank

6

8

8

8

9

10

8

9

7

6

Performance Indicator Twenty-Six tracks the proportion of those unemployed for 52 weeks or longer. Lower ratios earn better ranks.

British Columbia earned the sixth place rank in 2007. The last time British Columbia ranked this well was 1998.

Decreases in BC's long-term unemployment rate have outweighed increases since the 14.3 percent peak in 1997. British Columbia's rate was slightly below the national average in 2004, above it in 2005 and was well below in both 2006 and 2007.

Long-term unemployment rates have fallen across the country since 1998 except in Prince Edward Island which has a consistently low rate.

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, are a larger proportion of this unemployed population.

International Comparison

In 2006, British Columbia ranked third compared to OECD countries although. BC's rate was much higher those in Korea or Mexico. Canada ranked sixth in 2006.

Both BC and Canada have low long-term unemployment rates compared to OECD countries. Both were well below the total OECD rate of 32.2 percent in 2006. Except for Norway, Sweden and Iceland, Europe has much higher long-term unemployment rates on average than non-European OECD members.

Long-Term Unemployment and Long-Term Joblessness

A common concern about unemployment statistics is that they fail to record significant numbers of people who want to work but are excluded from the standard international definition of employment. For example, "discouraged workers," those who are not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available, are not counted because they have not looked for work in the past four weeks.

This topic is of particular relevance for BC as relatively low employment engagement has been shown to explain a large part of BC's poor performance on the Low Income Cut-Off.

A broader concept that is worth consideration is "long-term joblessness." It is usually defined as working-age people who were not in employment at the time of the interview and have not worked within the last one or two years.

An OECD analysis of this topic used data on men aged 25-54 because they are generally expected to employed unless disabled or in extended education.

Notes
Those (aged 15 and older) that were unemployed for 52 weeks or longer are considered longterm unemployed. The data shown for BC and Canada have not been adjusted to match the OECD standard.

This analysis showed considerably higher ratios for long-term joblessness than long-term unemployment. In addition, Canada's rank went from third best to tenth best among the nineteen jurisdictions reviewed.

Source: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD Employment Outlook, 2002.

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