BC Business Magazine names Fort St. John best city for work

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — BC Business Magazine has released their second-annual ‘Best Cities for Work in 2016‘ list, and Fort St. John has once again topped that list.

Followed by Dawson Creek, which placed fifth last year, the two Peace Region cities are followed by the District of North Vancouver, Squamish, and Coquitlam, respectively. Out of the 36 B.C. cities ranked, Port Alberni finished in last place.

BCBusiness Editor-in-Chief Matt O’Grady says he expects this years results to provoke a lot of discussion across the province.

“The B.C. job market, despite what’s happening next door in Alberta, has more or less weathered the economic storm,” he adds.

Still, some cities are clearly faring better than others; as he points out that B.C.’s largest city, Vancouver, is missing from the top 10. However, runner-up Surrey did rank higher than 10 on the list.

He was featured on CKNW’s Jon McComb Show this morning, telling guest host Jill Bennett it ‘speaks to what has been, over the past five years, a remarkable growth in that community — income growth and population growth.’

“A lot that has been tied in the oil and gas sector, and obviously that’s taken a downturn in the past year. But, from all accounts, people we talk to on the ground, and from Environics doing the research, Fort St. John and Dawson Creek are holding up fairly well.

Now, we’ll see what happens next year, if the decline next door in Alberta is effecting them in a meaningful way. We could see those cities flip, but for now, they are quite comfortably ahead at number one and number two on the list.”

Developed in partnership with Environics Analytics, the survey evaluated each of B.C. cities on economic indicators such as income growth, average household income, population growth and unemployment.

Combined, these factors paint a picture of relative economic health in each community—and their relative appeal for those seeking work there.

The study considers a city as having more than 10,000 permanent residents. Some municipalities, such as White Rock and West Vancouver, were left out as they have high-income residents, but don’t have a large or distinct job markets.