The B.C. economy lost 132,000 jobs in March, the largest single month drop since Statistics Canada started tracking that number, sending the unemployment rate up to 7.2 per cent amid the COVID-19 crisis. “These aren’t simply numbers They represent individuals, they represent families and they represent businesses in our province who are struggling right now,” Finance Minister Carole James said Friday. “And we know in fact that this is not the entire picture.
We know there are thousands of British Columbians who are out of work and would be seeking work right now but are hampered in their efforts for various reasons related to the pandemic.” And next month’s labour force survey will likely be worse, she said, in the aftermath of the