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 publically available quarterly Economic Indicators Report highlighting key economic data for the Central Okanagan.
The Q4 Economic Indicators Report includes cumulative statistics for 9 key economic indicators for January to December 2019. The report is publically available in the Resources page in the COEDC website.
The Kelowna CMA saw the second highest population increase in BC at 1.9% as per the latest BC Stats population estimates release, coming only after Chilliwack’s 2.5% population increase.
2019 saw the lowest unemployment rate for the Central Okanagan in the last 20+ years, with a 4.0% unemployment rate for the year, along with an increase of 2.5% in labour force participants. The Central Okanagan experienced a 7.0% increase in job postings from last year with a total of 24,508 jobs posted in 2019. The Central Okanagan’s employers with most job postings included Interior Health, UBC Okanagan, Walmart, Okanagan College and KF Aerospace.
On the business side, the region saw an increase of 5.5% in business licenses (13,882 in total) for 2019, with West Kelowna (21.6%) and Lake Country (20.7%) leading the way in business license growth in the Central Okanagan.
Highlights reported by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation saw housing starts in the region experience a decrease of 12.9% with focus remaining on multi-family units. A total of 381 row homes (town homes) were built in 2019, which is the highest number of row homes started in any year in the Central Okanagan.
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.