BC Check-Up 2024 Work
The 2024 BC Check-Up: Work report focuses on labour-market trends across the province and in each of the province’s seven economic development regions. The report finds that BC’s labour market softened on nearly every headline metric, as employment fell between April and September 2024, and was effectively flat on a year-over-year basis. The unemployment rate jumped from 5.5% in September 2023 to 6.0% in September 2024, and the job vacancy rate retreated to a seven-year low as of July 2024. Meanwhile, population growth continued to accelerate as the province added 156,700 (+3.4%) working-age residents during the year.
BC Check-Up 2024 Live
The 2024 BC Check-Up Live report focuses on affordability and demographic trends amid record population growth . The report finds that BC added more than 162,000 residents between July 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023, coming entirely from international migration. In the housing market, higher interest rates kept home prices below the March 2022 peak, but prices have stabilized over the past year. Still, housing affordability remains one of the biggest challenges in the province. Results from CPABC’s member survey showed that 61% of respondents expected housing affordability to worsen in their region in 2024.
BC Check-Up Invest
The BC-Check-up-INVEST-2024 report focuses on investment trends across the province and in each of the province’s seven development regions. The report highlights that housing starts reached a record high in 2023, but other indicators showed mixed results amid higher interest rates. Weak economic growth is expected for 2024, with GDP per person forecasted to fall for the second consecutive year. Major project activity is also expected to decline in the coming years, as many large natural resource projects approach completion. Meanwhile, the provincial government announced its largest capital spending package ever in the 2024/25 budget.
