Loss of 20,000 full-time jobs in BC highlights need for good jobs, good wages strategy

September employment numbers released today by Statistics Canada show BC has the worst record of any province on full-time employment, after the province shed 20,000 full-time jobs in September, says the BC Federation of Labour.

“Numbers bounce around month to month, but the downward trend for good-paying, full-time jobs over the last quarter and the rise of lower-paying, part-time work have been a growing concern,” says Federation President Irene Lanzinger.

“And when you look deeper into the statistics, our economy is not creating enough good-paying, full-time positions,” Lanzinger says. “Meanwhile, stable, full-time employment is being replaced with more precarious and lower-paying, part-time jobs.”

And that trend, she says, underlies a growing crisis that labour groups are demanding the provincial government address.

The BCFED recently submitted a nine-point Good Jobs, Good Wages Action Plan to Liberal and NDP politicians on the finance committee of the provincial Legislature.

Among the plan’s recommendations include a call that Victoria implement a good jobs strategy to create more full-time work in all sectors of the economy instead of precarious, part-time positions, and that the BC Government set a goal of making BC first in Canada in the creation of good-paying, full-time jobs.