B.C.’s job market has expanded since the pandemic, but growth is uneven across sectors.
Job growth has been heavily skewed toward the public sector, leaving the private sector largely stagnant, according to the Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC)’s report released on Monday titled Where B.C. employment has (and hasn’t) grown since 2019.
From 2019 to the first half of 2025, four of the five fastest growing industries in B.C. were in the public sector, including public administration (44 per cent), public health care and social assistance (40 per cent), other public sectors (40 per cent) and public educational services (39 per cent).
The only private sector that outpaced the public ones was the professional, scientific and technical services, which grew by more than half (51 per cent) during the period, followed by construction (30 per cent).
Meanwhile, some private industries have contracted. Agriculture led the decline, with employment down 27 per cent. Other sectors posting job losses included business, building and other support services (-15 per cent), utilities (-11 per cent), accommodation and food services (-7 per cent), forestry, fishing and resources (-3 per cent), and information, culture and recreation (-2 per cent).
“These sectors in private industry bring in income from outside the province… They support regional economies and drive higher productivity,” said Jairo Yunis, director of policy at BCBC.
“When they contract, it reduces the province's ability to sustain incomes to fund public services and to weather economic shocks.”
The growth rate of B.C.’s private and public sectors has been close historically, with an average annual increase of 2.1 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively, between 1976 and 2024, according to a BCBC report published in June.
However, the divergence has significantly widened since 2019, when public sector jobs saw an average annual growth of 5.4 per cent — nearly triple the historical pace, while the private job growth rate was almost cut by half to 1.1 per cent.
This makes the province the second-highest in public sector job growth in Canada, following Prince Edward Island, but the third lowest in private sector growth, ahead of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec.
“We need public services — they are essential,” said Yunis.
“But if private employment lags too far behind, in the long run, the model becomes hard to sustain without higher taxes, more borrowing or costs elsewhere."
The August report also highlighted a growing gap between B.C.’s goods- and services-producing industries over the past six years — employment in services rose 13 per cent, compared with just two per cent in goods-producing sectors.
Starting last December, both federal and provincial governments have implemented a hiring freeze in response to ongoing fiscal constraints and U.S. tariff threats. Effective May 30, all hiring requests for the B.C. government need to be submitted to the head of the BC Public Service for approval.
In Stats BC’s July report, the public sector recorded the steepest month-over-month employment drop — down 2.3 per cent — compared with a 0.1 per cent gain in the private sector and a 0.7 per cent decline in self-employment.
“We will have to wait and see if it was just a monthly blip, or if this is the start of a new trend of public sector employment downsizing or correcting,” said Yunis.
“It's encouraging to see that the province is committed to streamlining processes and being more efficient and doing more with less.”
He said B.C. needs a strong, vibrant private sector for a sustainable economy. Incentives such as tax exemptions for capital investment, reduced interprovincial trade barriers and predictable permitting processes will help businesses stay and expand.
“How do we make sure that businesses invest, base their operations here, and grow and hire? That's what we need to really focus on,” he said.
