Metro Vancouver is adding jobs faster than anywhere else in Canada

No, it’s not just your imagination — the population of Metro Vancouver is growing quickly. And it’s increasing faster than both the rest of British Columbia and Canada as a whole.

Population growth is a useful metric for determining the health of an economy. More people entering a region, after all, typically correlates with a spurt in employment — a vital factor is determining how well an area’s businesses are doing. Since 2001, there’s been a 35 percent increase in Metro Vancouver’s population, outpacing B.C. (which saw a 23 percent upswing) and the country more broadly (welcoming a 25 percent growth). 

As expected, as more people have entered the local region, jobs have followed. According to a November 2023 report from Invest Vancouver, employment growth in Metro Vancouver outpaced even its significant population growth from 2001 to 2022: while its population grew 35 percent, employment rose 51 percent. Much of that increase came from new immigrants to the region, but Metro Vancouver also saw rising labour force participation rates, particularly among the oldest cohorts (people aged 55 to 64, and 65 and older).

Sectors experiencing job growth

Those employment gains were distributed across multiple industries. While the area is known in part for film, animation, and VFX, as well as SaaS businesses, Metro Vancouver boasts successful anchor companies in a diverse range of sectors. Supporting that heterogeneity, the region’s employment growth was higher in every industry compared to the country as a whole. Metro Vancouver also bested the statistics for the rest of the province in all areas, except for public administration. 

Using stats taken from 2022, the region has around 1.7 million workers, including public and private sector employees and the self-employed. Of that number, healthcare and social assistance represented 10.7 percent; professional, scientific, and technical services were at 10.4 percent; retail trade took 10.2 percent; construction — of course — counted for 7.8 percent; accommodation and food services stood at 7.5% percent; and educational services represented 6.8 percent.

The mix is similar to the national landscape, although with a greater share in professional, scientific, and technical services — indicative of the region’s large knowledge-based economy. Manufacturing and public administration, in turn, account for a smaller share of employment in the region than in the nation, given Vancouver’s relative lack of industrial land and high cost for land-use and office space.

Job growth in context

Despite that increasing population and workforce, which both contribute to a resilient Vancouver economy, the region remains a modest player on the global stage.

Invest Vancouver’s report notes that the region is the third-largest metropolitan area by population and GDP in Canada, though it remains vastly outflanked by Greater Toronto, which boasts more people than the entire province. Metro Vancouver’s economy is relatively small in the global context: a contributing factor to why most businesses in the region look for customers overseas.

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