The President of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce is optimistic that the worst of the job losses because of COVID-19 is behind us.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Tyson Andrykew says a survey in early April revealed an average of 43 people laid off by businesses across B.C., noting that number was down to 12 layoffs in early May.

“It is a little promising to see that the number of layoffs seems to have hopefully bottomed out,” he said. “The hope is that in future months, in the not too distant future, we’ll start to see a reversal of that, and hopefully we have some positive job growth.”

Finance Minister Carole James says the province lost about 314,000 jobs since February, adding that rebuilding the economy is going to be a massive task.

“It does seem that some businesses waited until the last second to lay off employees or hopefully we reached a bottoming out point at the end of April and beginning of May, and hopefully we’ll start to see some improvement there,” Andrykew added.

“But that’s a lot of people out of work and its troubling times for sure.”

The B.C. unemployment rate in May reached 13.4 per cent, slightly below the national average of 13.7 per cent.

In Kamloops, the unemployment rate was 10.9 per cent, down from 12.3 per cent in April. Across the Thompson-Okanagan, unemployment is at 9.5 per cent, which is up from nine per cent a month earlier.

Business Group call for temporary layoff extension to the end of August

Meanwhile, B.C. business groups are calling on the government to extend the temporary layoff time limits to August 31, to bring it in line with the extension to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

They say employers will be faced with ‘regulated chaos’ as the deadline approaches where many businesses – by law – will have to terminate laid-off employees and pay them severance, which will use all or most of their operating cash or lines-of-credit forcing them into bankruptcy, insolvency or permanent closure.

“If the Minister acts now, this can all be avoided. Our pulse surveys have shown that businesses want to reopen and bring back their teams – but they just need more time,” BC Chamber CEO Val Litwin said.

“By not extending the temporary layoff period we’re knowingly hampering the business community’s earnest attempts at restart. A simple solution that works for everyone, if enacted today, could change BC’s recovery trajectory for the long term.”

Business groups are also calling on Labour Minister Harry Bains to add an additional six weeks once emergency orders are lifted to help facilitate a smooth restart for businesses that were either closer or operating in a reduced capacity because of COVID-19.