In an effort to keep the public and business community informed on the economy of the region, The Regional District of Central Okanagan’s Economic Development Commission (COEDC) – the Region’s primary business resource – releases a publicly available quarterly Economic Indicators Report highlighting key economic data for the Central Okanagan.
The Q1 Economic Indicators Report includes cumulative statistics for 10 key economic indicators for January to March 2019. The report is available in the Resources page in the COEDC website.
Highlights reported by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation saw housing starts in the region continuing strong growth with an increase of 34% as focus remains on multi-family units. With a total value of over $ 1.1 billion in building permit values, 2018 saw 18.8% growth from 2017 for a 2nd record breaking year.
Kelowna CMA continues to see increases in the Central Okanagan’s labour force participation (1.9%) with an average unemployment rate of 4.2% for Q1 2019. The Central Okanagan experienced a 29.9% increase in job postings from last year with an average of 2,540 job postings each month. The top three categories for job postings included – Sales and Service Occupations (31.1%), Business, Finance and Administration Occupations (13.2%) and Trades, Transport & Equipment Operator Occupations (10.2%).
The Kelowna Airport is now ranked the 10th busiest airport in Canada and continues to see record breaking passenger numbers with March 2019 marking the 12th consecutive month. Q1 2019 saw passenger numbers increase by 7.7% over Q1 2018.
Note the Commission collects the above third party statistical data from BC Stats, Statistics Canada, CMHC, and local governments in the Central Okanagan. Caution should be used in the interpretation of month-to-month statistics, in particular the Labour Force Survey, a monthly sample survey which provides unemployment rates of the Canadian labour market.
