I love how politicians and business associations continue inflating the " prosperity " bubble about Kelowna. I recently read an...

Thompson-Okanagan Area with the highest unemployment rate in the province

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I love how politicians and business associations continue inflating the "prosperity" bubble about Kelowna. I recently read an article from Daily Courier saying that "the unemployment rate is low" in Kelowna (http://goo.gl/PT4u1f). Let's do some math... Kelowna is part of the Thompson-Okanagan area, and based on the information provided by WorkBC, the Thompson-Okanagan Area has the highest unemployment rate in the province (5.7%)

Unemployment Rate January 2015
Source: WorkBC - http://goo.gl/1FYlOm

1. Thompson-Okanagan............. 5.7%
2. Mainland / Southwest............ 5.6%
3. Kootenay................................ 5.2%
4. Vancouver Island / Coast....... 5.2%
5. Cariboo................................... 5.0%
6. North Coast & Nechako......... 4.7%
7. Northeast -

Also, the article mention that Kelowna is the "third biggest technology cluster in the province". Let's see the whole group:

Source: BCStats: http://goo.gl/QQhg1N

1. Mainland / Southwest............... 68%
2. Vancouver Island / Coast......... 16%
3. Thompson-Okanagan................. 9%
4. Kootenay.................................... 2%
5. Northeast.................................... 2%
6. Cariboo....................................... 2%
7. North Coast & Nechako............. 1%

I don't want to be around when the bubble burst. Who is going to be the responsible? Maybe the global warming, or maybe the rise or fall in the price of oil, or perhaps the fall of the Canadian dollar value. As usual, none of the politicians will take responsibility, and some of them will be promoted to higher positions. We are playing the "High Technology" game these days, let's see who wins.

But don't forget that Kelowna is ranked #17 as one of the "Best Cities for Work in B.C.", and also rated in 4th position as one of the "Least Affordable Housing Market in Canada" - http://goo.gl/vLDsxn. I don't know how, but our Major Basran believes that "Kelowna's future is bright." - http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/132719/Basran-predicts-bright-future


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2 comments:

  1. I live in Penticton.. It's probably the same or even worse here. I don't trust the official unemployment statistics either. They don't include a lot of people who are unemployed and they don't include the underemployed. There are upwards of 100 applications for each job opening around here. If they included these groups, the unemployment rate would be much higher, probably at least 20%.

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  2. Based on the official numbers, we are the worst area in BC. I don't wanna see the real numbers.

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