The headlines are screaming about a "crisis." The legacy media is tripping over itself to report that British Columbia’s unemployment rate has hit a ten-year high, painting a picture of a province on the brink of collapse. They see a rising percentage and see failure. They see job losses and see a catastrophe.
They are looking at the wrong side of the ledger. You might also find this connected article interesting: The Fragile Grain Under Siege.
What we are witnessing in March isn't the death of the BC economy. It is a long-overdue correction. For the last five years, the BC labor market hasn't been healthy; it has been bloated, inefficient, and dangerously overheated. Business owners have been held hostage by a talent shortage that forced them to overpay for mediocrity. Startups were burning through venture capital just to keep the lights on because the cost of entry-level labor spiked beyond any reasonable ROI.
If you can't find a job right now, it’s not because the economy is broken. It’s because the market is finally demanding value again. The era of the "participation trophy" salary is over. As reported in latest reports by The Economist, the effects are significant.
The Myth of the Labor Crisis
The "lazy consensus" suggests that a rising unemployment rate equals a failing province. This logic assumes that every job created is a good thing. It isn't.
We have spent years inflating a bubble of "zombie jobs"—roles in companies that only exist because of cheap debt and government subsidies. When the interest rates went up and the free money stopped flowing, those jobs vanished. Good. Those positions were a drain on the ecosystem. They trapped human capital in low-productivity sectors while high-growth industries starved for talent.
When the unemployment rate sits at a historic low, innovation dies. Why? Because nobody is scared. There is no pressure to perform when you know you can quit today and find an identical paycheck tomorrow. Friction creates fire. Without a little bit of anxiety in the labor market, productivity plateaus. British Columbia has had a productivity problem for years, and a 0% unemployment rate was the primary culprit.
Why Business Owners Should Stop Panicking and Start Buying
If you are a CEO in Vancouver or Victoria right now and you’re freezing your hiring, you are making a tactical error.
I have seen companies blow millions on recruiting during the "boom" years, only to end up with a workforce of entitled "quiet quitters" who knew they were untouchable. Now, the tables have turned. The power dynamic has shifted back to the people who actually take the risks: the employers.
- Quality is back on the menu. You can finally hire a senior engineer or a marketing lead who doesn't demand a 30% raise and a four-day work week just to show up.
- Retention through loyalty, not bribery. When jobs are scarce, employees value the ones they have. Culture starts to matter again because people are actually sticking around to build it.
- The "Burn Rate" Correction. For years, BC tech companies were forced to match Silicon Valley salaries despite not having Silicon Valley scale. This hike in unemployment is the market’s way of saying: "Prices are too high."
Dismantling the "People Also Ask" Nonsense
People are asking: Is BC in a recession? Wrong question. Ask: Was BC’s growth ever real? Much of our perceived wealth was tied to a real estate market that functioned like a giant Ponzi scheme. Now that the floor is shaking, the jobs tied to that artificial growth are disappearing. This isn't a recession; it’s a detox.
People are asking: When will the government fix the unemployment rate?
Brutally honest answer: They shouldn't. Every time the government "creates" a job, they are usually just moving tax dollars from a productive pocket to an unproductive one. The government didn't create the tech boom, and they shouldn't try to "fix" the cooling period. The best thing David Eby can do for the economy right now is stay out of the way and let the market find its new equilibrium.
The Statistical Trap
Let’s talk about the 10-year high. Statistics are the ultimate tool for the intellectually lazy.
The unemployment rate is a lagging indicator. It tells you what happened three months ago, not what is happening today. More importantly, the participation rate often tells a different story. If the unemployment rate is rising because more people are actively looking for work—meaning they have re-entered the market after sitting on the sidelines—that is a sign of an expanding labor pool, not a shrinking economy.
In a scenario where we have a 7% unemployment rate but a 2% increase in patent filings or a 5% increase in export volume, which metric matters more? I’d take the latter every single time. A province of 100% employment where everyone is digging holes and filling them back up is a province destined for poverty.
The Brutal Reality of the Tech Sector
The BC tech landscape (yes, I used the word, but in its literal sense of the ground we stand on) was littered with "Series A" companies that had no path to profitability. They hired 50 people because their investors told them to "scale fast."
Now, those companies are laying off 20% of their staff. The media calls this a "tech bloodbath." I call it a "talent redistribution." Those 20% aren't going to vanish. They are going to start their own companies. They are going to join smaller, leaner firms that actually have a business model. They are going to work for the legacy industries—mining, forestry, shipping—that desperately need digital transformation but couldn't afford the talent two years ago.
This is how an economy evolves. It’s painful, it’s messy, and it’s absolutely necessary.
The Downside to the Contrarian View
I’m not a sociopath. I know that behind every statistic is a person who can’t pay their mortgage. That is the human cost of a market correction. The downside of my "creative destruction" stance is that the transition period is ugly.
However, lying to the public and saying we can maintain 4% unemployment forever is more cruel. It sets people up for a fall when the inevitable cycle turns. We should be teaching resilience and skill acquisition, not promising permanent job security in a world that doesn't owe anyone a living.
Stop Looking for a Safety Net
If you are waiting for the "good old days" of 2021 to return, stop. They aren't coming back. The interest rate environment has fundamentally changed the math of employment.
To the worker: Your degree doesn't matter anymore. Your "years of experience" in a bloated corporate environment don't matter. What matters is: Can you generate more revenue than you cost? If the answer is no, you are a liability. If the answer is yes, you are immune to the unemployment rate.
To the investor: This is the time to deploy capital. When everyone else is crying about March’s job losses, that is when you find the founders who are building for the right reasons, not just for an exit.
The unemployment rate isn't a thermometer for the province’s health; it’s a filter. It’s filtering out the weak business models, the lazy work ethics, and the unsustainable growth patterns.
BC isn't losing jobs. It’s losing dead weight.
Quit whining about the stats and start looking for the opportunities that only exist when everyone else is too afraid to move. The market is finally rewarding excellence again. If you’re scared, maybe you’re the one the filter is designed to catch.
Do not wait for a recovery. The recovery is the fire.
