Canada immigration news: The lifting of many of the COVID-19 public health restrictions pushed up the number of people working full-time in retail jobs in British Columbia in September, Statistics Canada date shows.
The West Coast province now has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Canada, behind only Manitoba, even as its labour force is growing. In Kelowna, in the province’s Interior, and Victoria, its capital city on Vancouver Island, unemployment hit a low of 4.4 per cent in October.
And it’s not just the retail sector in British Columbia that’s booming again.
Despite a dip in September, the trend this year across Canada has been for more job openings in professional, scientific and technical services as well.
“Since the end of the first wave of the pandemic in June 2020, the number of people working in the professional, scientific and technical services industry has followed a long-term upward trend, with employment surpassing its pre-COVID February 2020 level by 183,000 in September 2021,” states Statistics Canada in its latest Labour Force Survey.
The other noticeable trend in British Columbia is that many of the jobs available are now full-time, not part-time.
Jobs Up, Unemployment Down, More Workers Join Labour Force
In October, the province gained a net 10,400 jobs compared to the previous month, with full-time positions growing by 1.8 per cent, or 38,400 jobs, and part-time jobs shrinking by 4.6 per cent, or 28,000 positions.
While COVID-19 has hurt many people’s job prospects due to the various public health restrictions and the economic blow to several industries, many other occupations have fared even better than before the pandemic began.
Here are the Top 10 Most In-Demand Jobs In British Columbia that Ottawa says improved during the pandemic by their National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes.
1. Payroll Administrators (NOC 1432)
These are the people who collect, verify and process payroll information, determine pay and benefit entitlements for employees, maintain accurate payroll records, and provide payroll information within a department, company or other establishment.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, demand for payroll administrators boomed as many employers needed to lay off staff due to the pandemic public health measures – and, later, had to hire employees again as the restrictions were lifted. Payroll administrators were needed to implement such measures as employment terminations, temporary layoffs, and reductions of employee hours.
In mid-November, the Indeed.ca job website listed 174 jobs for payroll administrators in British Columbia alone and 667 across the country.
Based on a 37.5-hour work week and full-time employment, a payroll administrator in British Columbia makes a median annual income of $47,750 but can earn up to $71,500 in the northeastern part of the province.