Prince George’s job market ranked near bottom of the province

UPDATE: Initiatives Prince George has penned a response to the rankings in the Vancouver Sun, calling much of the data in the report inaccurate.

BC Business Magazine has ranked Prince George 27th out of 36 in a study that ranked job markets across the province.
The study was based on hard data including population and income growth, average income, unemployment and more. BC Business says they intentionally left out factors such as cost of living and housing so they could focus on the job market. Prince George’s stagnant population growth is one factor that pulled down its ranking.

“We just really wanted to answer a single question.” Says Trevor Melenson, associate editor BC Business “And that is which city has the best job market. Whether you can only afford to live in a studio apartment in that city, or a house, is a separate question.”

Melenson says that the study shows the job market across northern BC varies wildly;

“On the one side you have Fort St. John, which we ranked as our best city in BC for work with its booming oil and gas industries and now it’s looking like Site C will go ahead. Their problem if anything is getting enough workers up there… And then on the other side of BC you have really high unemployment around areas like Terrace and Prince Rupert.”

The study says that many cities in Northern BC, Prince George included, are waiting the promised LNG boom. The biggest challenge that will follow the influx of development in the north is making sure cities are liveable enough for workers to stay put and keep their money within the local economy, as opposed to flying back home at turnaround.

“It becomes a quality of life question” added Melenson “It’s a question of having enough housing. Rental housing is often a struggle in smaller communities. Cafes, bars and anything that makes the city more desirable to live. Nobody wants to have to take an airplane to work.”

The full rankings can be found here.