Prince George, B.C. – B.C.’s economy continues to hum along.

Statistics Canada pegged year over year job growth at 3.7 percent this July – a number well above its provincial counterparts.

“Actually on a year to basis over 12 months B.C. has the highest growth rate among all provinces. Employment increased by about 85,000 over the 12 months,” says analyst Vincent Ferrao. “The unemployment rate this July was 5.6 percent from 6 percent a year ago.”

He says the increase in jobs in B.C. was “broad based across several industries” including construction, retail and wholesale, and in the financial and real estate sectors.

The 85,000 jobs created in B.C. was more than the number of jobs created at the national level where the unemployment growth rose to 6.9 percent from 6.8 percent a year earlier (an increase he calls statistically insignificant).

“There’s been slow employment growth over the 12 months. It’s up only .4 percent. 71,000 more people are working.”

Locally, he says the unemployment in Prince George was fairly static compared to last year at this time.

“It was 7.7 percent in July – that’s very similar to what it was in July of last year when it was 7.8 percent.”

Ferrao says the number of people working hasn’t changed much at 47,700 compared to 47,200 a year ago while the number of people looking for work – 4,000 – is also unchanged.

As for the Cariboo region he says unemployment is up slightly at 8.3 percent from 7.9 percent a year ago.

“That represents about 7,200 people this July who are unemployed and 79,400 who are working.”

He says most of the regional job losses were in the retail, wholesale, accommodation and food services sectors.