British Columbia Sector Profile: Social Assistance

Highlights

• Employment in the sector was 2.8% of British Columbia's total employment at 74,200 jobs in 2021.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated some longstanding issues within the social assistance subsector related to mental health and child care.
• Though the gender gap has shrunk in recent years, women accounted for 80% of employment in social assistance in 2021.
• The Government of British Columbia's spending on child care, mental health and substance abuse supports are expected to bolster employment in the subsector.

Provincial Overview

The social assistance subsector provides important support to individuals and families across the province. The role of social assistance in communities has risen in the wake of increasingly complex client needs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, employment in social assistance reached a new high of 74,200 jobs in British Columbia, representing 2.8% of the province's total employment. Over the previous decade, the social assistance subsector grew by 18,900 jobs.

Source: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, ESDC custom table

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Social Assistance Employment

Year	Employment (Total)	Full-time	Part-time
2011	55,300	37,800	17,500
2012	56,800	38,900	17,900
2013	51,000	34,100	16,900
2014	60,600	40,900	19,600
2015	62,200	43,500	18,700
2016	61,500	38,400	23,100
2017	65,300	42,600	22,600
2018	66,700	43,500	23,200
2019	65,800	45,200	20,600
2020	59,500	39,900	19,600
2021	74,200	49,700	24,500

Note: Figures shown are employment estimates. Totals may not add to 100% due to rounding.

The social assistance subsector is made up of establishments that provide a wide variety of assistance services directy to their clients. These services include individual and family services, community food and housing, emergency and other relief services, vocational rehabilitation services and child daycare services.

Source: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, ESDC custom table

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22% of workers were self-employed in 2021

Among service-producing subsectors, social assistance accounts for the eighth highest share of the province's employment. The large Lower Mainland economic region is host to the majority of employment in the subsector (59.1%), followed by the Vancouver Island and Coast (17.1%), Thompson/Okanagan (13.8%), Cariboo (3.6%) and North Coast and Nechako economic regions (2.6%).

Changes to the subsector's annual employment varied across economic regions in 2021. The Thompson/Okanagan region experienced a significant jump in annual employment (+67.2%). Annual employment was also up in the Lower Mainland (+33.1%) while it contracted in the Kootenay and Cariboo economic regions.

Source: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, ESDC custom table

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Gender Distribution (2021)

Gender	% of Sector Employment
Female	80%
Male	20%

Social assistance continues to be a female dominated field. In 2021, women accounted for approximately 80% of the subsector's employment, though the gap has shrunk slightly in the past decade. Since 2011, the proportion of men has increased from 16% to 20%. As a large subset of occupations in the social assistance subsector require some form of postsecondary education, the smallest share of employment was represented by the 15-24 year age demographic (9%). The 25-54 year age demographic accounted for the highest share (67%), followed by the 55+ year age group (24%).

Source: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, ESDC custom table

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Age Distribution (2021)

Age Group	% of Sector Employment
15-24 years	9%
25-54 years	67%
55+ years	24%

Sector Trends

A number of unique factors affect the need for social assistance in B.C., including the province's high housing costs and rates of homelessness, a mental health and substance abuse crisis, and limited access to affordable childcare options.

While the provincial economy demonstrated resiliency in the wake of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the region remains at the forefront of Canada's housing crisis. According to the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation, Metro Vancouver simultaneously had the lowest rental vacancy rate and highest monthly rent of any metropolitan city in Canada with over one million people. For renters with the lowest 20% of incomes, for example, only 1 in 1,000 units (0.1%) in the city were affordable. ^[1]

The province's affordable housing crisis has contributed in large part to the region's chronic homelessness problem. According to the most recent data 7,655 people in the province were identified as experiencing homelessness, with many at risk of becoming homeless. Among the most commonly reported barriers were an inability to afford rent and a lack of available or suitable housing options. ^[2]

British Columbia is also at the centre of Canada's opioid crisis, with the highest rate of opioid-related deaths in the country. In 2021, BC Emergency Health Services recorded a record setting number of overdose calls, up 31% from 2020. ^[3]

Recognizing the relationship between housing instability and substance abuse, the B.C. government announced significant funding in 2021 for social assistance supports to aid the physical and mental wellbeing of the province's vulnerable populations. Employment in the subsector is expected to increase as a result of a provincial government investment of $500M in new spending toward a variety of mental health and substance abuse support programs. ^[4] The spending includes a network of mental health supports across the province and the development of a full spectrum of substance-use treatment and recovery services.

While employment within the subsector continued to grow, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a need for universal access to childcare, as many parents faced challenges in securing care for their children. Some of the most common challenges to obtaining childcare in British Columbia were difficulties in finding care in nearby communities and the affordability of childcare. ^[5]

Occupation of Interest: Early Childhood Educators and Assistants

Early childhood educators (ECEs) and ECE assistants plan and deliver childcare and education to children up to age 12. Most children in British Columbia receive some form of childcare or early education between ages 0 and 5, ^[6] and the most common childcare arrangement is care in a daycare, pre-school, or other childcare centre. ^[7] In BC, total employment in this occupation has rebounded from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and both full-time and part-time employment has increased.

Early childhood educators usually require licensing by the responsible provincial or territorial association, and must complete either a two- or four-year college program in early childhood education, or a bachelor's degree in child development. ECE assistants may also require licensing and completion of a certificate program. ^[8]

ECEs and assistants are focused on teaching children, supporting their development, and ensuring their safety. Typical duties may include:

• Developing and implementing programs that support children's physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development
• Planning and maintaining an environment for care that protects the health, security, and well-being of children
• Assisting children to develop proper eating, dressing, and toilet habits
• Identifying possible learning or behavioural problems, and communicating issues to supervisors, parents, or guardians

More information on the duties, requirements, skils, wages, and prospects for this occupation are available on Job Bank.

Source: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, ESDC custom table

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Occupational Employment

Year	Employment (Total)	Full-time	Part-time
2011	18,800	12,800	5,900
2012	22,200	15,700	6,500
2013	18,100	13,000	5,100
2014	22,000	15,000	7,000
2015	21,800	14,600	7,100
2016	20,800	14,000	6,800
2017	24,700	16,500	8,100
2018	24,400	16,200	8,200
2019	24,600	16,000	8,600
2020	20,900	14,700	6,200
2021	28,200	17,900	10,300

Note: Figures shown are employment estimates. Totals may not add to 100% due to rounding.

In 2021, there were 28,200 people employed as early childhood educators and assistants in British Columbia. Most jobs (63.4%) were full-time while 36.5% were part-time in 2021.

Salaries for ECEs and assistants are lower than average ^[9] with a median salary in British Columbia of $18.94 per hour for the group. Early childhood educators earned 51% of the average teacher salary in 2019. ^[10]

Employment Outlook

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have varied across segments of the Social Assistance sector. Employment dropped more than average for child care workers at the beginning of the pandemic, however, and was slow to recover during the pandemic's first year. ^[11]

In 2018, the Government of British Columbia launched the Child Care B.C. Plan with a goal of moving toward universal child care in the province. Under the $1-billion strategy, the government planned to create more childcare spaces, reduce fees paid for childcare, increase the number of ECEs, and ensure quality in childcare. ^[12] In order to address the challenge of recruiting workers to the sector, the British Columbia government has offered a series of wage enhancements. The latest round of funding added $4 per hour to wages for ECEs in licenced childcare facilities. ^[13]

Employment in the subsector will also be supported by the July 2021 agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of B.C. on federal childcare funding. As part of the deal, Ottawa will work with the province to achieve by 2027 an average of $10 per day childcare in regulated spaces for children under 6 years old. The agreement also aims to create 30,000 new childcare spaces in the province, and cut fees for regulated spaces in half. ^[14] As such, the provincial government anticipates over 10,000 job openings in British Columbia for certified early childhood educators and assistants within the coming decade. ^[15]

Thanks partly to the federal and provincial support for childcare, employment prospects within the social assistance sector are considered good in British Columbia. ^[16] According to Work BC, from 2019 to 2029 the sector was expected to have 24,600 job openings. ^[17] Growth was expected to be particularly strong in the Mainland/Southwest, Cariboo, and Thompson-Okanagan regions. Beyond the openings for childhood educators and assistants previously mentioned, the strongest demand by occupation over the 10-year period was forecast to be:

• Social and community service workers (3,691 openings)
• Home child care providers (1,987 openings)
• Home support workers, housekeepers and related occupations (1,676 openings)
• Family, marriage and other related counsellors (992 openings)
• Social workers (991 openings)

Note

In preparing this document, the authors have taken care to provide clients with labour market information that is timely and accurate at the time of publication. Since labour market conditions are dynamic, some of the information presented here may have changed since this document was published. Users are encouraged to also refer to other sources for additional information on the local economy and labour market. Information contained in this document does not necessarily reflect official policies of Employment and Social Development Canada.

Prepared by: Labour Market Information (LMI) Directorate, Service Canada, Western Canada and Territories Region

For further information, please contact the LMI team

Endnotes

1. CMHC. February 18, 2022. Rental affordability continues to pose significant challenges. ↑

2. Homelessness Services Association of BC, Urban Matters and BC Non-Profit Housing Association. December 2018. 2018 Report on Homeless Counts in B.C. ↑

3. Global. January 12, 2022. B.C. paramedics, dispatchers responded to record-setting 35,525 overdose calls in 2021. ↑

4. Government of B.C. April 20, 2021. Budget 2021 supports people now while building the foundation for strong recovery. ↑

5. Statistics Canada. Table 42-10-0008-01  Type of difficulties for parents/guardians in finding a child care arrangement, household population aged 0 to 5 years. Accessed February 18, 2022. ↑

6. Statistics Canada. Table 1 Use of early learning and child care arrangements, by province and territory, household population aged 0 to 5. ↑

7. Statistics Canada. Table 42-10-0005-01  Type of child care arrangement, household population aged 0 to 5 years. ↑

8. Government of Canada (February 9, 2022). Job Bank: Daycare helper in Canada. ↑

9. Statistics Canada. Insights on Canadian Society: Child care workers in Canada. ↑

10. The Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development. Early Childhood Education Report 2020: British Columbia. ↑

11. Statistics Canada. Insights on Canadian Society: Child care workers in Canada. ↑

12. Government of British Columbia (2018). Child Care B.C. Caring for Kids, Lifting Up Families: The Path to Universal Child Care. ↑

13. Government of British Columbia. Early Childhood Educator Wage Enhancement. ↑

14. CBC. July 8, 2021. Federal, B.C. governments reach deal on child-care funding. ↑

15. Government of B.C. February 18, 2022. Investing in early childhood educators creates a StrongerBC, Canada. ↑

16. Government of Canada (February 9, 2022). Job Bank: Daycare helper in Canada. ↑

17. Governent of British Columbia, Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training. B.C. Labour Market Outlook 2019 Edition – Industry Profile. ↑