The B.C. Business Council says there were almost 400,000 jobs lost in the province in the last two months which erases 14 years of job gains.

In April B.C. employment plunged by 264,000 jobs which followed 132,000 jobs lost in March.

Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, Chief Economist Ken Peacock says as we move through the restart plan we will see some of those losses return, but it will take some time. “June might be a bit early, but we are going to see employment numbers start to move up again and move up in sizable increments and sizable amounts. But again, the context is 400,000 lost jobs, so even if we gain half we are still really, really under water.”

Peacock adds that the numbers don’t capture those who perhaps saw hours reduced or were sent home but remained employed, and with those potentially being some of the first people brought back it will underline the slow recovery process.

Peacock says there will be specific industries that are going to be slower at getting those lost jobs back. “We are going to see a rebound in employment, but at the same time the reopening is going to be mixed. Consumer confidence, not clear how confident people are going to be in heading back out. The restaurant sector is going to have restrictions with 50 per cent capacity and that kind of thing and the tourism and air travel industry is going to remain hard hit.”

Peacock says the financial crisis of 2008-2009 saw the province lose 70,000 jobs over nine months. “It took four years to recover jobs in the great recession, the financial crisis. So, even if we have a strong rebound we’re going to be digging ourselves out of a much deeper hole.”