“BC continues to lead every province in our economic recovery. In fact, we have a 103% recovery rate, 3% more people working right now in BC than we did prior to the pandemic, and Prince George is leading that way. Prince George with an unemployment rate of 3.2% is leading the country in the economic recovery.”
That was Minister of Jobs Ravi Kahlon, as he talked about plans for the province’s economic recovery.
Kahlon said there will be more than one million new job openings in BC over the next ten years, and that the province is expected to have a declining population starting in 2030.
“The number one issue I hear from employers right now is they can’t find enough workers, and that is across the province, and it’s not isolated to one sector.”
He added immigration will be a big part of trying to fill positions across the province.
“I highlighted that we had the highest net provincial migration in over 28 years last year, we expect that to continue.”
To address supply chain issues, as well as inflation, Kahlon said they are looking at a couple different things.
“So manufacturing closer to home, finding ways to produce food in ways that we haven’t done in the past to address some of our food challenges, and aggressively moving our economy to electrify or move to hydrogen to get more people off of fossil fuel use so that we can become more resilient for future impacts that we may see in the economy.”
Kahlon expects mining to be a strong economic driver for BC in the future.
He added that young people should consider looking into the trades right now as well.
With climate change, Kahlon noted that many jobs are going to change or evolve over the next few years.
“Not only do we need to train people to take the jobs, we need to train people already working in the existing workforce, and prepare them for the transition and changes that are coming.”
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
