Yellow Fever
January 12th, 2009, 04:07 AM
Forty thousand B.C. jobs expected to be lost in 2009
By Lena Sin, The Province, with Canwest News Service
January 11, 2009
As the global economic crisis continues to spill into B.C., some 40,000 jobs are predicted to vanish across the province in 2009, according to an economic report to be released this week by Central 1 Credit Union.
Those most at risk work in construction, but substantial job losses are also expected in the retail, primary-resource and manufacturing industries.
Finance and real-estate jobs will also disappear, say forecasters.
“It’s been a fast adjustment from growth to recession and it caught most people by surprise,” says Dave Hobden, a Central 1 Credit Union economist. “We thought it would take longer to wash up on our shores.”
The construction sector is predicted to shed some 25,000 jobs in 2009, followed by retail and wholesale trade, which are expected to see 11,000 job losses, according to the new economic report.
B.C.’s primary resource sector (which includes mining, forestry, fisheries and agriculture) is predicted to take 4,000 workers off the payrolls, while manufacturing is forecast to cut 3,000 jobs.
Predicted job losses amount to a 1.7-per-cent decline in employment.
“The rapidity of the change has been unprecedented,” said Ken Peacock, director of economic research at the B.C. Business
Council.
Nationally, 34,000 full-time jobs were cut in December, according to figures released Friday by Statistics Canada.
B.C. shed 7,500 jobs in December — most in construction — pushing unemployment to 5.3 per cent, up from 4.9 per cent in November.
In B.C., provincial Finance Minister Colin Hansen said he still believes B.C.’s in a better position than the rest of Canada.
Hansen said economic advisers predict the downturn will bottom out in mid-2009, with B.C. rebounding in 2010.
By Lena Sin, The Province, with Canwest News Service
January 11, 2009
As the global economic crisis continues to spill into B.C., some 40,000 jobs are predicted to vanish across the province in 2009, according to an economic report to be released this week by Central 1 Credit Union.
Those most at risk work in construction, but substantial job losses are also expected in the retail, primary-resource and manufacturing industries.
Finance and real-estate jobs will also disappear, say forecasters.
“It’s been a fast adjustment from growth to recession and it caught most people by surprise,” says Dave Hobden, a Central 1 Credit Union economist. “We thought it would take longer to wash up on our shores.”
The construction sector is predicted to shed some 25,000 jobs in 2009, followed by retail and wholesale trade, which are expected to see 11,000 job losses, according to the new economic report.
B.C.’s primary resource sector (which includes mining, forestry, fisheries and agriculture) is predicted to take 4,000 workers off the payrolls, while manufacturing is forecast to cut 3,000 jobs.
Predicted job losses amount to a 1.7-per-cent decline in employment.
“The rapidity of the change has been unprecedented,” said Ken Peacock, director of economic research at the B.C. Business
Council.
Nationally, 34,000 full-time jobs were cut in December, according to figures released Friday by Statistics Canada.
B.C. shed 7,500 jobs in December — most in construction — pushing unemployment to 5.3 per cent, up from 4.9 per cent in November.
In B.C., provincial Finance Minister Colin Hansen said he still believes B.C.’s in a better position than the rest of Canada.
Hansen said economic advisers predict the downturn will bottom out in mid-2009, with B.C. rebounding in 2010.