As the Canadian and B.C. economies hover on the cusp of recession, the outlook for the provincial job market is darkening. The latest employment numbers reveal that B.C. lost almost 16,000 jobs in August, a sizable monthly drop. Canada shed 100,000 jobs over the summer. In the past year, job growth in B.C. has decelerated sharply, running at a subdued one per cent pace both recently and for 2025 year-to-date.

The downturn in job creation reflects a falloff in private sector hiring along with rising layoffs. But a bigger contributing factor is the inevitable curtailment of runaway hiring in the sprawling public sector—which includes government administration, health care, education and social services. Based on average monthly levels over the January to August period, the number of employees in B.C.’s private sector is up just 0.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of employees in B.C.’s broad public sector is up 1.5 per cent year-to-date. This is still twice the pace of private sector job gains. But it marks a dramatic fall from the jaw-dropping 6.1 per cent expansion in public sector payrolls in 2024. Over the past three years, more employees have been added in........

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