Unemployment rate climbs to 6.7% in B.C.

B.C.'s unemployment rate rose more than half a percentage point in February, hitting 6.7 per cent, as an estimated 14,000 people joined the ranks of the jobless.

Despite the losses, the provincial rate remained a full percentage point below the national average, which rose to 7.7 per cent in February as 82,600 jobs were lost, marking the fourth consecutive month of declines.

The largest job losses in February were in Ontario, which suffered more than half of the country's total employment losses, followed by Alberta and Quebec.

Paul Landry, the president of the B.C. Trucking Association, said jobs are being lost in that industry as freight volumes fall, and predicted more people will become unemployed as companies begin to shut down.

"We had previously been experiencing a lot of difficulty finding professional drivers, qualified drivers, mechanics and so on, and over the last year or so, we noticed that that pressure has been completely lifted," said Landry.

The job section of the association's website has only two job postings for truckers at the moment and Landry predicts some of the smaller players in the trucking industry will disappear due to a lack of work.

"We're beginning to see a few companies disappear from our roster, unfortunately. Many of them are quite small and don't have the resources to get though this," he said.