The number of jobs in Surrey increased by 2.4 per cent, or 7,052, between February 2020 and this past August. That’s from 296,748 people employed in Surrey, in all industries, in February 2020 compared to 303,800 in August 2021.
That’s according to the Surrey Board of Trade’s September 2021 Surrey Labour Market Intelligence Report, which was released on Tuesday.
“Surrey’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be driven by a two-pronged strength: knowledge-based industries and resource industries,” said Anita Huberman, CEO of the board. “Many other goods and services sectors in Surrey remain impacted and below February 2020 employment levels.”
READ ALSO: Surrey has recovered 33K jobs that were lost to the pandemic
Huberman said healthcare, technology, public administration, and resource sectors – namely agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining and oil and gas – lead Surrey’s recovery but the construction sector continues to lag and large-group accommodation and food services, as well as retail, wholesale and arts and culture-related jobs remain below pre-pandemic levels.
Surrey Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman (File photo)
She said of those sectors most impacted by the pandemic and still not fully recovered in Surrey, construction jobs are down by about 7,000 or 21.3 per cent. Education services both private and public are down more than 3,100 jobs or 19 per cent, and retail and wholesale trade is still down by about 1,000 jobs, or 2.1 per cent.
Those sectors showing the greatest recovery since February 2020 in Surrey, on the other hand, are health care and social assistance (up by almost 6,000 jobs, or 17.3 per cent) while professional, scientific and technical businesses in Surrey are up by almost 3,300 jobs (16.8 per cent), public administration is up by some 2,800 jobs in Surrey (30.4 per cent) and the resources sector gained almost 1,100 jobs, recovering by 36.3 jobs since February 2020.
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