On one of the first two Friday's of every month, statistics from the Labour Force Survey make the news. The unemployment rate and changes in the number of people employed always receive some attention. The Labour Force Survey is the timeliest all of the surveys conducted by Statistics Canada. It is conducted in the middle of the month and reported out just two or three weeks later. On October 10, 2003, data were reported for the month of September, and that is when British Columbians learned that the BC unemployment rate was 9.1% compared to 4.9% in Alberta. In September the unemployment rate decreased in Alberta while it increased in BC with a record 200,900 people unemployed. On Friday, November 7th, data will be released for October's survey.

The Campbell government has a habit of misinterpreting data from the Labour Force Survey. The numbers cited above are seasonally adjusted; the government appears to pick and choose between adjusted and unadjusted data according to which makes it look best. For example, it claims that 100,000 jobs were created in BC in 2003 but (as of September) seasonally adjusted employment increased by only 23,400 since December. Of course, 23,400 jobs are important but that is an increase of only 1.2% with only three months remaining in the year. When the budget was tabled in February, Finance Minister Collins estimated employment growth of 1.7% in 2003. He stuck with that forecast in his First Quarterly Report released in September. Friday's release of data for October will give a good indication of whether Collins was optimistic (even though his forecast was low compared to 2.1% average annual employment growth achieved during the NDP Era).

The Labour Force Survey includes people who are employed only part time as well as people who are self-employed. In September 2003 the Survey said that BC had 2.0233 million people employed on a seasonally adjusted basis (or 2.0371 million unadjusted). The number of people who worked 35 or more hours per week as employees was less than half of that, 1.0138 million (unadjusted). In addition to full time employees, there were 228,500 self-employed people in September who worked 35 or more hours (out of a total of 389,400 self-employed).

The complex make up of total employment (full time, part time, self-employed) makes it worthwhile to look at a variety of indicators to see what is happening to people who are looking for work. Statistics Canada also publishes data on the number of people claiming employment insurance benefits. In August, BC had 70,100 receiving regular benefits - a 6.8% increase over August 2002 and an increase for the 7th consecutive month. No matter how you look at it, the employment situation is not as rosy as the Campbell government would have people believe.