Following three months of declines, B.C. job counts steadied in December according to Statistics Canada’s latest Survey of Employers, Payroll and Hours. Total payroll counts in the province increased by 0.2 per cent or by more than 4,100 positions, pushing total payroll employment to 2.56 million. The increase owed almost entirely to B.C.’s services-producing industries. StatCan’s Labour Force Survey, meanwhile, reported a 0.5-per-cent increase in employment and a 0.7-per-cent expansion in the province’s labour force on a month-to-month basis.

B.C.’s job vacancy rate held at 3.6 per cent in December, with total vacancies falling to around 89,200—reversing the previous month’s increase. Nevertheless, the job vacancy rate has remained low since the second half of 2023—a trend that points to mild hiring.

Within goods-producing industries, manufacturing posted a modest headcount increase........

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