Guide to Using Labour Market Information

WorkBC offers a wealth of labour market information – everything from statistics about wages to data forecasting demand for workers.

While labour market information is extremely useful, the numbers and stats can sometimes seem overwhelming. Read on to gain insight into how to navigate the information to make it work for you.

How can I use labour market information?

If you are a job seeker, an employer, a researcher, a student, a parent or a career counsellor, you’ll find value in our labour market information.

The right labour market information will help you make the best decision, if you are:

  • Looking for a job.
  • Planning your career or considering a career change.
  • Interested in hiring new workers.

What types of labour market information are available?

Wage and salary data:

Wage: The amount of money someone in a specific occupation makes in an hour of work

We provide three wage statistics:

  • Low – what you can expect to make when you are new to an occupation.
  • Median – what you can expect to make mid-career.
  • High – what you might make later in your career.

Salary: the amount the average person in a particular occupation earns each year

Labour demand and supply statistics:

Demand: the amount of labour required.

Supply: the amount of labour available.

Together, these statistics determine what opportunities are available in the job market.

Looking for work in a region or field where demand for labour is expected to increase faster than supply tends to improve your employment prospects. On the other hand, finding work in a region or field where labour supply is greater than demand may be difficult.

Worker demographics:

Demographics: statistical data about a population, such as age, level of education, immigration status and family makeup.

The demographics of the workforce play an important role in labour market trends. For example, in regions or in occupations where workers are older, more retirements will soon occur. This will lead to more job openings.

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How can I use WorkBC’s labour market information?

Job Seeker Planning Career Guide Employer
A Job SeekerPlanning Your CareerAn Employer
Wage and salary data can help you to:
  • Know how much you can expect to earn in a job
  • Know how high a salary you can reasonably request from a potential employer
  • Decide where to look for work, by identifying which regions offer the highest pay in your field
  • Decide which careers will meet your earning expectations
  • Decide if it is worth investing in upgrading your education to pursue a certain career
  • Determine the amount you will need to pay to attract applicants with the skills and experience you require
  • Map out your organization’s human resources budget
Labour demand and supply statistics can help you to:
  • Decide where you’re most likely to find your dream job
  • Make informed decisions about your field of study and training
  • Assess the likelihood that your passion will evolve into a lucrative career
  • Choose a career and a region where demand for workers is expected to be relatively high
  • Plan ahead to ensure you can meet your human resources needs
Demographic information can help you to:
  • Determine where your best job opportunities lie
  • Assess your competitiveness against others in your field
  • Learn about trends (e.g., education levels) to assess whether you are prepared to compete in a chosen field
  • Predict upcoming trends in your industry and plan ahead to ensure that your workforce continues to meet your needs
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Does the source of the labour market information affect its usefulness to me?

How information is collected and how often it is reported can make it more or less relevant to you.

Most labour market information in Canada is collected using either the Labour Force Survey, conducted monthly, or the National Household Survey, conducted every five years. While the National Household Survey uses a much larger sample size and offers data that is more detailed, the Labour Force Survey offers information that is more up-to-date.

For example, the National Household Survey could tell you how much a carpenter in a specific region made – but only as recently as the year before the latest five-year survey. The Labour Force Survey’s information will be more current but less specific. It could tell you, for instance, the earnings of all people in the trades in the last month. Using both sets of information together will help you make better labour market decisions.

Where else can I find relevant labour market information?

The more information you have, the better your decisions will be. Seek out as much information as possible. Talk to people in your field of interest, consult news sources and visit sites such as WorkBC.ca.

You can gather more information about labour markets by following current events and the news in your area. Trends toward globalization, for example, can have a long-term impact on your local labour market. Changes in technology might mean that certain skills become more desirable to employers. A major investment in your area may mean an increase in demand for labour.

All will help you make the best career and labour market choices.

Where does this information come from?

Our information comes from the B.C. Labour Market Scenario Model. This model generates a 10-year forecast for B.C.’s labour market. It bases its forecast on:

  • Historical data, including population by age, employment by industry and occupation, and information on major projects.
  • Assumptions about the future, including retirement rates, economic growth rates and immigration levels.

How does WorkBC deliver this information?

We produce several reports based on the information we get from the B.C. Labour Market Scenario Model. These reports can be useful to employers, job seekers and decision-makers in government, industry and post-secondary education.

The B.C. Labour ?Market Outlook offers projections about the British Columbia labour market. These include:

  • The expected number of job openings.
  • Which regions will have the fastest-growing demand for workers.
  • Which occupations will be in the highest demand.
  • What level of education and training will be needed for the predicted job openings.
  • How the aging of the workforce will affect employment across the province.

Related labour market resources

We draw from a number of valuable resources to deliver reliable, up-to-date labour market information. Each of these resources offers vast amounts of data.

For additional information, refer to these sources below.

Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada’s monthly Labour Market Indicators based on the Labour Force Survey provides employment and unemployment data from approximately 6,500 B.C. households. The results appear on Statistics Canada’s website on the first Friday of every month.

Statistics Canada’s Census Program, carried out every five years, provides national, provincial, municipal and regional data. It gathers information in categories ranging from income and occupation to education and immigration. It also provides social statistics on women in the workforce, marital status, home ownership and more.

Census and community profiles

Every five years, each household in Canada takes part in the census. Residents provide information about the number of people in their homes, their ages, genders and ethnicities. Statistics Canada’s Census Profiles provide census information specific to each community in the country.

Working in Canada

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s Working in Canada website contains links to labour market news stories. It also has detailed wage information by occupation and region.

BC Stats

Mine the riches that BC Stats has to offer. Use their search menu to find a wealth of topics to answer your labour market and other B.C. statistics questions.

BC Stats uses the location of B.C.’s census boundaries and development regions. They also identify the province’s health administrative boundaries, electoral districts, college regions and school districts.