Employment
The number of people employed in the Thompson Okanagan Region increased from 260,900 in December 2018 to 270,900 in December 2019. Simultaneously, the number of people in the labour force increased from 260,900 in December 2018 to ** in December 2019. Last month, employment rates were 61.8% in B.C. and 61.9% in Canada, while the Thompson Okanagan Region was 59.4%. The unemployment rate in the Thompson Okanagan Region increased from 4.7% in November to 5.0% in December.
Source: Statistics Canada LFS
Number of Postings by Occupation, in Kamloops
Airport Passenger Volumes
Kamloops Airport continues to experience overall sustained growth, surpassing last year’s record growth by 2.75% and marking our marking our best year to date.
Source: Kamloops Airport Authority
Real Estate
The national average price is heavily skewed by sales in the GVA and GTA, two of Canada’s most active and expensive housing markets. Excluding these two markets from calculations cuts more than $117,000 from the national average price, trimming it to around $400,000 and reducing the y-o-y gain to 6.7%.
"Housing markets across the province staged a strong recovery in the second half of 2019,” said BCREA Chief Economist Brendon Ogmundson. “This sets up 2020 to be a much more typical year than what markets have experienced recently.”Decemnber 2019 increased 8.7 per cent from December 2018. Total sales dollar volume was $3.9 billion, a 61.8 per cent increase year-over-year.
Sources: Kamloops and District Real Estate Association, BC Real Estate Association, and Canadian Real Estate Association
Housing Construction
There were 16 new housing starts in Kamloops in December 2019, which was up from the 8 starts in December 2018. The 16 housing starts represented $4,067,088 in construction value, compared to $1,743,210 in construction value for the 8 housing starts in December of the previous year.
Source: City of Kamloops; Statistics Canada
Building Permits
In December 2019, the City of Kamloops issued 35 residential building permits valued at $4,363,688, an increase over total permits issued in December of the previous year at a value of $2,082,065. A total of 17 commercial building permits were issued in December 2019 with a value of $11,791,917 compared to the 8 permits issued in December 2018 with a value of $109,877,706.
Source: City of Kamloops
Business Licenses
Kamloops issued 58 new business license applications in December 2019 up from the 31 from the previous year.
648
Business Licenses
Issued (YTD)
470
Residential Building Permits
Issued (YTD)
155
Commercial Building Permits
Issued (YTD)
Source: City of Kamloops
