The Central Okanagan in January had the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.
The region’s jobless late remained steady in January at 4.6%, which is the lowest mark among Canada’s 37 major metropolitan areas, according to Statistics Canada.
The Kelowna metropolitan area, which includes West Kelowna, experienced a decrease of approximately 1,500 workers from December to January, but the unemployment rate did not change.
The 4.6% mark is only two-tenths of a percentage higher than the region’s unemployment rate in January 2020—two months prior to COVID-19 shutdowns.
Quebec City had the nation’s second lowest January unemployment rate at 4.7%.
The unemployment rate in B.C. last month was eight per cent, up from 7.2 per cent in December. The national jobless rate was 9.4 per cent in January, up from 8.8 per cent in December, and economists say that’s mainly due to the loss of hundreds of thousands of service sector jobs, most in Ontario and Quebec.
