The Kelowna economy is still COVID volatile.
There are signs of economic rebound and consumer and business confidence.
But there's also trepidation and in some cases downright decimation in the case of Kelowna airport passenger numbers.
"The Q1 (first quarter, January through March, 2021) economic indicators show signs of economic recovery and rising business confidence in many sectors," said Krista Mallory, manager of the Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission.
"At the same time, many sectors of the economy continue to experience significant impact and long-term recovery challenges with airport passenger traffic down 80% and job postings in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector down 91% compared to Q1 2020."
The indicators also don't give the full picture of how severely the restaurant and hotel sectors have been impacted by indoor dining and travel bans.
Every three months, the commission releases its report tracking nine prime barometres that gauge the health of the economy.
- Building permit values
This is by far the most encouraging indicator with Central Okanagan municipalities, in the first three months of the year, issuing permits for $629 million worth of construction.
That's up a whopping 251% from permits for $179 worth of construction issued in Q1 2020.
It shows the construction and development industry is raring to go and has the confidence the resulting housing and commercial space will be snapped up.
- Population
This is a bright spot for Kelowna with the number of people living in the city increasing 2% to 222,748 at the end of 2020.
Such growth makes Kelowna the fastest growing community in BC and the fourth fastest in Canada.
The pandemic has actually made Kelowna more desirable as a place to work, live and play.
People are moving from big cities like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto to smaller cities like Kelowna to work from home and enjoy the lifestyle.
As you saw previously with building permit values, and will see with some of the following categories, the lifestyle trend is also a contributor to higher housing starts, rising home prices and apartment rents, larger labour force and more job listings.
- Labour force
In Q1, 109,433 in the Central Okanagan had jobs, a slight increase from the 108,300 at the same time last year.
The unemployment rate has dipped to 5.37% from 5.77%.
- Job postings
Employers posted 3,623 job openings in Q1 2021, a 14.58% increase over the same three month period last year.
Within the statistics, there was a 52% increase in health occupation postings and an 80% freefall for arts, entertainment and recreation job postings.
- Housing starts
Construction started on 589 homes of all kinds (single-family, townhouse, apartment and condominiums) in the first three months of 2021, a 5.75% increase from the 557 starts over the same period last year.
- Business licenses
Despite some business closures because of COVID, there were enough new company openings to yield a 4.7% increase in the number of business licenses in the Central Okanagan.
In Q1 the total count was 14,534, up from 13,882 a year earlier.
- Airport passengers
This by far is the hardest hit indicator with the number of passengers at Kelowna airport plunging to 88,648 in Q1 2021, a dramatic drop from the 453,289 passengers in the same three months of 2020.
- Median new home price
Is now $912,500 in Kelowna, up 6.21% from Q1 2020.
- Average rent
For a two-bedroom apartment in the Central Okanagan is now $1,368, up a scant 0.4% from a year earlier.
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