It would be tough to miss the ad, particularly if you鈥檙e trying to watch anything online. The one where WorkBC tells us that: 鈥淏.C.鈥檚 growing economy will lead to one million job openings by 2020.鈥�
Since it was uploaded to YouTube in February, it鈥檚 had more than 1.2 million views, the bulk of them paid for by the very people it is trying to influence 鈥� B.C. taxpayers. It has received nine thumbs-up and 12 thumbs-down ratings on YouTube.
Rarely does it come with YouTube鈥檚 version of the mute button: the opportunity to skip the ad after five seconds. Even Enbridge鈥檚 Northern Gateway ads give you that choice.
Funny what the ad doesn鈥檛 mention, though. It doesn鈥檛 say that those million jobs come by counting all the job openings in B.C. starting from 2010. More than four years of openings have come and gone, but the ad鈥檚 overall total was never reduced to take those jobs into account.
Heck, with that logic, any number is possible. It鈥檚 almost as bad as saying there will be more than 2.3 million job openings in B.C. by starting the count from when W.A.C. Bennett was premier.
The B.C. ministry responsible for jobs says the province has been clear on its job numbers. Yeah, clear as mud.
According to WorkBC鈥檚 website: 鈥淯nemployment is expected to drop to 6.5 per cent by 2015 and 5.2 per cent by 2020, as more than one million new jobs open up across the province.鈥�
So which is it: 鈥渙ne million job openings鈥� as the ad states or 鈥渙ne million new jobs鈥� as the website states? Because they鈥檙e not the same thing. According to mapyourcareer.org, a 鈥渘ew job鈥� is a job that 鈥渄id not previously exist.鈥�
B.C.鈥檚 Labour Market Outlook 鈥� which WorkBC relied on for that one million jobs statistic 鈥� clearly states that 鈥渙ver one million job openings are expected in B.C. from 2010 to 2020.鈥�
But something WorkBC鈥檚 ad doesn鈥檛 mention is that almost two-thirds of those openings 鈥渨ill be due to replacement demand as a result of retiring workers and deaths.鈥� Those jobs aren鈥檛 the result of 鈥淏.C.鈥檚 growing economy.鈥�
Dig a little further into the report and you鈥檒l find that the other 鈥渙ne-third of job openings will be due to new jobs that result from economic growth.鈥� Again, starting from 2010.
And who鈥檚 going to fill a good chunk of these openings? The Market Outlook has some answers on that too: 鈥淭he B.C. labour market is expected to rely increasingly on migrants for new labour supply over the outlook period. New migrants to B.C. are expected to fill one-third of job openings to 2020.鈥�
A fact not lost on the B.C. government. According to Michael Smyth in the Province, 鈥渢he Ministry of Natural Gas Development has an 鈥榓ction plan鈥� to get the credentials of foreign workers quickly recognized and certified in B.C.,鈥� based on a request-for-proposal posted on a government website.
Oh, and the best years for job growth are pretty well behind us. According to the Market Outlook: 鈥淔or 2010-2020, demand for workers is expected to grow by an average of 1.7 per cent in the first half, then by 0.9 per cent in the second half of the forecast.鈥�
The Ontario government forecasts that job creation in that province 鈥渋s expected to strengthen over the medium term, with employment increasing by 1.4 per cent in 2014, and 1.5 per cent in both 2015 and 2016.
WorkBC was likely hoping few would go looking for the Labour Market Outlook from the ad鈥檚 鈥榝indyourfit鈥� vanity URL to verify whether the one million job openings was true. And it would be tough to find, even if you wanted to from that landing page.
Given that four years of job openings from the one million estimate have come and gone, that demand for workers is going to slow in the remaining years, and that one-third of the openings are likely to be filled by new migrants, one can only hope that the leftovers for British Columbians are well-paid, because a survey from the Economist released a couple of weeks ago has 91原创 ranked as the 30th most expensive place to live on Earth.
听
Dermod Travis is the executive director of IntegrityBC.
