Drastic unemployment drop
Photo: Contributed
Kelowna’s unemployment rate dropped a whopping 5.1 percentage points over a six-month period, falling from 8.7 per cent in December of last year, to a mere 3.6 per cent in June.
According to data from Statistics Canada, that put the city’s jobless rate nearly two percentage points below the province’s 5.4 per cent June rate, and almost 3 percentage points lower than Canada’s 6.3 per cent June numbers.
It also gave Kelowna the distinction of having the lowest unemployment rate of any Census Metropolitan Area in the country in June.
The city’s quick and drastic drop in unemployment marks a significant shift from a jobless rate that had been well about 7 per cent since January of 2016.
It is also one of the lowest unemployment rates Kelowna has recorded in the last decade; only twice since 2001 has the city seen 3.6 per cent or less of its population without jobs.
The highest unemployment rate recorded in Kelowna since 2001 was in June of 2009, when 11.7 per cent of the city had no work.
Statistics Canada data reveals a rough cyclical pattern in Kelowna’s unemployment rate. Although it’s not true every year, generally speaking the city’s unemployment rate begins to drop in the spring and summer, and creep back up over the winter months.
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