According to numbers released yesterday by Statistics Canada, Victoria led the country with the sharpest reduction in unemployment over the past seven years -- dropping from 6.7 per cent in 2000 to 3.7 per cent in 2006. Only Abbotsford and non-metropolitan British Columbia were close to Victoria's jobless slash. In contrast, parts of industrial Ontario and Quebec experienced hikes in the unemployment rate of up to five per cent over the same period.
"It's the shape of British Columbia's economy and the capital is reflective of that," says Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce chief executive Bruce Carter. "The size of our workforce has grown. There are good jobs here in many sectors and we fully expect that to continue.
"We're also the 23rd most expensive place to live on the planet right now ... if you're unemployed, why would you do it here?"
Quebec City ranked fourth and Vancouver tied with Halifax for fifth place in the study that found Canada's 28 metropolitan areas accounted for nearly three-quarters of the growth in employment in the country from 2000 through 2006.
B.C.'s labour market improvements came on the heels of gains in resource-based industries, construction and transportation, and increased exports to the Far East, notably China. Tourism also continues to drive employment growth despite downturns elsewhere in the country.
Victoria's stunning improvement from 22nd place among 38 areas surveyed in 2000 to the third lowest unemployment rate in Canada last December may also be partly explained by a fluid workforce, says University of Victoria economics professor Herbert Schuetze.
He said Victoria's proximity to other hotbeds of employment -- Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and the energy fields of northern B.C. and Alberta -- has allowed Victorians to quickly and efficiently go to where the work is if they can't find it here.
Victoria also emerged as a perennial best performer for having the lowest unemployment rates in five of the seven years, along with Calgary, non-metropolitan Alberta and non-metropolitan Manitoba.
The poorest performers were non-metropolitan areas of Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, as well as Windsor, Ont., which has been especially hard hit by setbacks in manufacturing and the auto industry.
Across Canada, the study also found that the average duration of unemployment fell by about three weeks between 2000 and 2006, from 19.8 weeks to 16.7 weeks. Declines occurred in 33 of the 38 areas examined.
The exceptions with a higher average duration of unemployment were Prince Edward Island, Saguenay, Oshawa, non-metropolitan Alberta and, surprisingly, Victoria. StatsCan described that as "intriguing."
West rated best to invest, B6