NANAIMO JOBLESS NUMBERS 4.7% - 7.3% - 8.5%

 

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Is Nanaimo Growing, Or Just Getting More Expensive?

The latest job numbers deserve a sober second look

Bottom line: Nanaimo may be growing, but the labour market numbers raise a harder question: is that growth producing real prosperity for working households, or simply making the city more expensive?

Points to Ponder

• Nanaimo’s unemployment rate has moved from 4.7% to 7.3% to 8.5%.
• At 8.5%, Nanaimo was reported as having the second-highest jobless rate in B.C. and tied for fifth-highest among 41 monitored Canadian urban centres in May 2026.
• Population growth alone does not prove prosperity if employment is weakening at the same time.
• The tougher question is whether Nanaimo is creating enough full-time, family-supporting, private-sector jobs.
• When taxes, rents, fees, and unemployment all rise, affordability becomes more than a housing issue. It becomes a taxpayer issue too.

Continue reading the full article below.

Nanaimo is often described as a growing city with a promising future. More people are coming here. The population is rising. New housing is being discussed. Tourism remains active. City Hall continues to speak the language of growth, opportunity, sustainability and economic resilience.

But there is another number that deserves a much closer look: unemployment.

In the City’s own 2026 State of the Nanaimo Economy report, prepared by Economic Development Officer Amrit Manhas, Nanaimo’s unemployment rate rose from 4.7% in 2024 to 7.3% in 2025. The report describes this as a significant increase following two years of lower unemployment.

Now, the May 2026 Statistics Canada labour force figure shows Nanaimo unemployment at 8.5%. That is not a one-off wobble. It is a visible upward pattern: 4.7% to 7.3% to 8.5%.

How Nanaimo Compares

This is not merely Nanaimo drifting upward by its own standards. Recent local reporting based on Statistics Canada’s May 2026 labour force data stated that Nanaimo’s 8.5% unemployment rate was the second highest in British Columbia, behind only Kelowna at 9.0%, and tied for fifth highest among 41 monitored urban centres across Canada.

That also puts Nanaimo well above both the provincial unemployment rate of 6.8% and the national rate of 6.6% for May 2026. In plain terms, Nanaimo is sitting near the wrong end of the urban jobless table.

To be fair, labour force numbers should always be handled carefully. Statistics Canada’s local figures are based on labour-market geography, not simply the City of Nanaimo municipal boundary. Monthly figures are also three-month moving averages and are subject to sampling variation.

There is another important caution. “Not in the labour force” does not mean every person has given up looking for work. It includes retirees, students, caregivers, people unable to work, and others who are neither employed nor actively looking for work. Still, when population rises while employment falls, participation weakens, and unemployment rises, taxpayers should pay attention.

The Hard Numbers

Here is the harder picture, rounded to the nearest hundred:

Year	Pop. 15+	Labour Force	Employed	Unemployed	Not in LF	Partic. Rate	Unemp. Rate
2021	101,100	62,100	58,200	3,900	39,000	61.4%	6.3%
2022	103,400	66,200	63,500	2,700	37,200	64.0%	4.1%
2023	105,600	68,300	65,000	3,300	37,300	64.7%	4.8%
2024	108,000	67,400	64,200	3,200	40,600	62.4%	4.7%
2025	110,000	68,400	63,400	5,000	41,600	62.2%	7.3%
May 2026	111,000	67,300	61,500	5,700	43,700	60.6%	8.5%

Table note: Annual 2021-2025 figures are based on the City report’s annual labour-market data and calculations from labour force, unemployment and participation figures. May 2026 is Statistics Canada’s three-month moving-average figure. All person counts are rounded to the nearest hundred.

That table says more than the headline unemployment rate. From 2023 to May 2026, estimated employment dropped from about 65,000 to 61,500. That is roughly 3,500 fewer employed people while the population aged 15 and over continued to grow.

From 2024 to 2025, the labour force grew by about 1,000, but employment fell by about 800, while the number unemployed rose by about 1,800. By May 2026, the number of people aged 15 and over not in the labour force had risen to about 43,700.

So the concern is not only the unemployment rate. The concern is the combination of higher unemployment, lower participation, lower employment, and continued population growth.

Population growth by itself is not proof of prosperity. A city can grow and still become less affordable. A city can grow and still fail to create enough productive, private-sector employment. A city can grow and still leave more people struggling to find work, working fewer hours than they need, or quietly stepping out of the labour force altogether.

The City’s own economic report acknowledges some of these weaknesses. It says Nanaimo’s economy stabilized in 2025 and is positioned for incremental recovery in 2026, but it also identifies key challenges: housing affordability, labour availability, weakening private-sector construction activity, and limited growth in high-wage sectors.

That last point matters.

The report notes Nanaimo has strength in healthcare, trades, sales and service, and community-facing occupations, while structural gaps persist in professional, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, management and manufacturing roles. Those gaps may constrain wage growth and economic diversification over the longer term.

In plain English: Nanaimo has jobs, but not necessarily enough of the kind of jobs that allow working households to keep up with Nanaimo’s rising cost of living.

This is where the conversation needs to move beyond slogans.

If rents are rising, taxes are rising, fees are rising, and the job market is weakening, then residents are being squeezed from every direction. It is not enough to say the city is growing. The harder question is: growing for whom?

Nanaimo needs to ask some direct questions.

• Are we attracting enough private-sector investment?
• Are we creating enough full-time, family-supporting jobs?
• Are City policies helping or discouraging small business growth?
• Are taxes, fees, permitting delays and regulatory costs making it harder to invest and hire?
• Are we too dependent on public-sector spending, government-funded projects, and service-sector churn?
• When City Hall talks about affordability, does it include taxpayer affordability and job-market reality, or only housing programs and planning language?

None of this is an attack on the City’s economic development staff. In fact, the State of the Nanaimo Economy report is useful precisely because it gives residents something concrete to discuss. The concern is what those numbers are now telling us.

The latest picture is not a collapse. But it is also not a victory lap.

Nanaimo is growing. Nanaimo is changing. Nanaimo may still have strong long-term potential.

But when unemployment moves from 4.7% to 7.3% to 8.5%, when employment falls while population rises, and when participation weakens, residents deserve more than optimistic language.

They deserve a serious public conversation about whether Nanaimo’s current economic direction is actually producing prosperity — or simply producing a more expensive city with fewer people able to keep up.

Source Notes

1. City of Nanaimo, 2026 State of the Nanaimo Economy, included in the May 25, 2026 Regular Council agenda package. The City report identifies Nanaimo’s 2024 and 2025 unemployment rates, labour force participation context, key economic challenges, and workforce composition issues.
2. Statistics Canada, Table 14-10-0459-01, Labour force characteristics by census metropolitan area, three-month moving average, seasonally adjusted. May 2026 Nanaimo values used above: population 15+ 111,000; labour force 67,300; employed 61,500; unemployed 5,700; not in labour force 43,700; participation rate 60.6%; employment rate 55.4%; unemployment rate 8.5%.
3. Statistics Canada, The Daily, Labour Force Survey, May 2026, reported Canada’s unemployment rate at 6.6%.
4. Statistics Canada’s May 2026 provincial unemployment-rate chart reported British Columbia’s unemployment rate at 6.8%.
5. NanaimoNewsNOW, “Nanaimo’s jobless rate remains one of highest in Canada,” reported Nanaimo’s 8.5% May 2026 jobless rate as second highest in B.C., behind Kelowna at 9.0%, and tied for fifth highest among 41 monitored Canadian urban centres.
6. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred where applicable. Annual figures for 2021-2025 are based on the City report’s labour-market data; May 2026 is a monthly Statistics Canada three-month moving-average figure.