Employment

The number of people employed in the Thompson Okanagan Region increased from 260,500 in January 2019 to 264,200 in January 2020. Simultaneously, the number of people in the labour force increased from 274,400 in January 2019 to 279,500 in January 2020. Last month, employment rates were 61.1% in B.C. and 61.4% in Canada, while the Thompson Okanagan Region was 58.0%. The unemployment rate in the Thompson Okanagan Region increased from 5.0% in December to 5.5% in January.

Source: Statistics Canada LFS

Number of Postings by Occupation, in Kamloops

Airport Passenger Volumes

Passenger numbers in January improved moderately over the record numbers reported for the same period in 2019, indicating that both leisure and business travelers are taking advantage of the additional capacity introduced into the market last November.

Source: Kamloops Airport Authority

Real Estate

The median MLS® residential price in BC was $725,370, a 9.1 per cent increase from $664,633 recorded the previous year. Total sales dollar volume in January was $3.2 billion, a 35 per cent increase over 2019.

Sources: Kamloops and District Real Estate Association, BC Real Estate Association, and Canadian Real Estate Association

Housing Sales across the Province January 2020

Board Avg. Price ($) Unit Sales
Kamloops 424,294 152
Greater Vancouver 979,097 1,602
Fraser Valley 751,226 902
Victoria 728,840 380
Chilliwack 544,764 166
Okanagan Mainline 522,163 375
Vancouver Island 477,113 363
South Okanagan 412,743 100
Kootenay 334,093 177
BC Northern 305,188 182
Powell River 303,664 11
Northern Lights 261,938 16

Housing Construction

There were 117 new housing starts in Kamloops in January 2020, which was up from the 10 starts in January 2019. The 117 housing starts represented $16,138,253 in construction value, compared to $2,682,317 in construction value for the 10 housing starts in January of the previous year.

Source: City of Kamloops; Statistics Canada

Building Permits

In January 2020, the City of Kamloops issued 42 residential building permits valued at $16,666,193, an increase over total permits issued in January of the previous year at a value of $2,894,077. 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 66 new business license applications in January 2020 down from the 69 from the previous year.

66

Business Licenses
Issued (YTD)

42

Residential Building Permits
Issued (YTD)

6

Commercial Building Permits
Issued (YTD)

 

Source: City of Kamloops