The year over year unemployment rate in the Cariboo was up last (July) month.
Julian Alvarez, a Labour Market Analyst with Stats Canada, says it was 6.3% in July of this year compared to 5.4 in July of 2025.
However, he says more people were also working in the region.
“The employment rate for July was 62.8% and this was 7.8 percentage points higher than July of 2025.”
Alvarez says in total there were 11,000 more people working last month compared to a year ago.
“Most of the increase year over year came from the service producing sector. We saw a large increase in wholesale and retail trade. It was up 4,200 compared to the previous July and we also saw an increase in educational services, which was up 2,800 when compared to the previous year.”
He says there were also declines.
“On the other side of the equation we saw a decrease in employment in forestry, fishing, mining and quarrying. This industry was down 1,800 employees compared to July 2025.”
BC’s unemployment rate came in at 6.2%, tied for fourth lowest among the provinces.
Here is a breakdown of all the provinces:
Manitoba 5.0%
Quebec 5.6%
Saskatchewan 6.0%
B.C. 6.2%
Nova Scotia 6.2%
PEI 6.8%
Ontario 6.8%
Alberta 7.0%
New Brunswick 7.0%
Newfoundland/ 9.3%
Labrador
