For some reason, we’ve been hearing a lot about Rupert’s unemployment rate lately, and how it compares to the provincial average. We decided to look into the region’s unemployment and how it compares to B.C. overall.
The graph below shows data accessed via B.C. Stats. The provincial agency releases a monthly snapshot of unemployment in a bunch of different areas across the province; the region that applies to Rupert is “North Coast/Nechako,” which stretches from Haida Gwaii to Vanderhoof. While that’s a giant geographical area, it gives some sort of idea of what unemployment looks like, especially when taken over the long term.
As you’ll see in the graph below, the provincial unemployment rate has consistently been lower than the regional rate, except for a few months of the spring and summer earlier this year. Also, after a huge divergence from December 2009 to September 2010, the two rates got much closer to each other, where they mostly remain today.
In case you’re wondering, the provincial unemployment rate for November 2011 was 6.3 per cent, and the regional unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent. Click on the graph below for a larger version.
Source: B.C. Stats