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There was a 44.4% increase in the number of jobs posted in the Central Okanagan in the first quarter of 2022.

That can easily be explained as a recovery from the COVID pandemic that decimated the hospitality and travel industries.

But that’s also a 65.5% jump over the first quarter of 2019, just before the pandemic hit.

This is according to data released today, May 6, by the Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission.

Of the 7,600 jobs identified the top five job categories constitute almost 75% of the postings or 5,757. The largest demand was in sales and service occupations, accounting for 29.4% of listings. That was followed by trades, transport and equipment operations at 14.3%, business, finance and administration at 13.6%, management at 9.4% and health coming in at 8%.

This comes at a time when housing starts were down by 40.4% from last year and building permit values dropped 42.6%.

“Housing starts and building permit values are down compared to a 251% surge in building permit values in Quarter 1 of 2021 largely attributed to a rush to meet Development Cost Charge grandfathering deadlines in the City of Kelowna in early 2021,” commission manager Krista Mallory said in a news release.

The region’s population is estimated to have grown by 5,778 people compared to the same time last year, a 2.6% increase. But, the labour force dropped 2.7% to 104,700 with a 6.9% unemployment rate for the first quarter.

The median housing price for the region jumped 37.5% over last year to $1,155,000, making it more expensive than Toronto. Rents climbed 6.9% to an average of $1,463.

The commission also crunched data from the recent Statistics Canada release of 2021 census counts of dwelling types for the region.

As a whole, the Central Okanagan has 94,335 occupied housing units, the report says.

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Of those, 49.1% are single-family houses while 22.7% are in apartment buildings with fewer than five storeys.

Despite the growing development of highrises and multifamily buildings within the City of Kelowna itself, it still has 42.5% of its housing in single-family homes.

West Kelowna, Lake Country and Peachland have 65-69% of their housing in single-family units.

For more, go to the economic development commission’s website, here.

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