Unemployment rate in B.C. inches up to 7.6%

B.C.'s unemployment rate rose to 7.6 per-cent in May, up 0.2 percentage points from the month before, and one economist says it's not going to stop there.

Almost 23,000 full time jobs were lost in B.C. in May, mostly in forestry, health care and social assistance, according to latest figures released by Statistics Canada on Friday.

Those full-time job losses were offset by more than new 24,000 part-time jobs, but the total number of unemployed still climbed by 4,700, putting the total for B.C. at 75,000.

Nationally, the unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage points to 8.4 per cent in May — the highest rate in 11 years. Total employment decreased by 42,000, led by manufacturing losses in Ontario.

Could reach 9% by year end

While B.C. has managed to remain almost a full percentage point below the national rate, Helmut Pastrick, the chief economist with the Central One Credit Union said unemployment in the province could rise another two percentage points by the end of the year.

"We're currently at 7.6 per-cent, and I fully expect it to break well through eight per cent by the end of the year, approaching nine per cent in B.C. by the end of the year," Pastrick told CBC News on Friday morning.

B.C.'s unemployment rate briefly reached 10 per cent after 9/11 because of the close ties tied to the troubled United States economy, and those ties are still in place, he said.

"Until we see a turnaround in the U.S. economy or other parts of the global economy that are important to the B.C economy, we're very likely to continue to see job losses," said Pastrick.

As for the 2010 Olympic bounce, Pastrick is expecting a boost in employment next winter, but he doesn't expect any marked decline in unemployment until much later in 2010.