Kelowna adds jobs but remains the worst city in Canada for unemployment rate

Kelowna adds jobs but remains the worst city in Canada for unemployment rate

Published 5:00 am Saturday, September 5, 2026

Despite dropping for the first time in six months, Kelowna still has the highest unemployment rate in Canada for metropolitan areas.

According to Statistics Canada, Kelowna’s unemployment rate in August was nine per cent, dropping from 9.3 per cent the previous month, the highest it’s been in 2026.

While the Labour Force Survey report showed the country lost a total of 42,000 jobs in August, B.C. had the smallest decline across the country with 5,500. However, Kelowna actually added around 1,100 jobs in August.

“People and businesses in British Columbia continue to show their steady strength and resilience as new and continuing tariffs from U.S. president Donald Trump create unjustified challenges in some of our most important sectors,” said Adrian Dix, acting minister of jobs and economic growth.

“… This follows 50,800 total jobs being added to B.C.’s economy in the previous three months, the result of the work our government is doing through our Look West strategy to strengthen our economy, deliver major projects faster and make sure British Columbians have the skills they need to seize on new opportunities.”

While B.C. may have only lost 5,500 jobs, that doesn’t tell the whole story. According to Stats Canada, 26,000 full-time jobs were lost, while 20,600 part-time jobs were added.

The BC Conservative party highlighted in a press release on Friday that full-time jobs are getting harder to find, blaming ‘the NDP’s failed economic agenda’.

“B.C. is losing full-time jobs, our forestry communities are losing good-paying work, and the NDP has failed to protect the industry that built so many of our communities,” said Kiel Giddens, shadow minister for labour and economic development.

“As mills close and curtail operations, families are left wondering where the next good-paying job will come from. We need a government that stands up for these workers and fights to create new opportunities.”

Being a tourist destination, August is historically a good month for employment rates in Kelowna, but that number has changed in recent years, going from 5.2 in August 2024, to 4.4 in 2025, all the way up to 9 per cent this year.

Different cities fluctuated across August on unemployment rates, with some cities falling while others were on the rise. However, the country as a whole remained flat at 6.5 per cent.

Behind Kelowna’s highest unemployment rate in the country for August was Oshawa (8.8), London (8.5) and Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo (8.2).

Dix said in a press release Friday that Trump is deliberately creating a powerful economic crisis for Canada, targeting the forestry sector.

“That’s why our work together with the federal government to support businesses, build up our country and invest in job-creating projects is more critical than it’s ever been,” said Dix.

Dix believes B.C. is taking big steps to grow an economy that can stand on its own as Canada becomes less reliant on being a trading partner with the United States.