Released on September 10, just 4 days before Financial Minister Gary Collins' First Quarter Financial Report is due, Statistics Canada's August Labour Force Survey doesn't seem to be "on message" for the Campbell government. Since July the unemployment rate increased from 7.3% to 7.7%, and employment fell by 14,500. Over the Labour Day weekend government ads boasted about BC's employment growth. Less than a week later the numbers came in showing BC in 9th position in terms of employment "growth", and in 5th position in terms of unemployment.

The Labour Force Survey is a telephone survey of households which, as its name suggests, measures the labour force. Its notion of employment includes self employed and unpaid household workers. The Survey of Payroll Employment, Earnings and Hours is a survey of employers. It measures paid employment. BC has not done as well in terms of paid employment as it has in terms of the much broader Labour Force Survey definition of employment. The most recent Survey of Payroll Employment, Earnings and Hours is for June. It shows BC in 7th place in May to June job growth. Growth in paid employment in BC has fallen behind the average for Canada for the three years since Campbell's New Era began.