British Columbia's unemployment rate inched up last month but that didn't worry the man responsible for the province's economic development.
Small Business, Technology and Economic Development Minister Iain Black said the increase to 7.5 per cent in May from 7.3 per cent in April marked an expected ebb and flow following a recession.
"Next month we'll be moving into a regime with a harmonized sales tax," he said, looking ahead to July.
"That has a direct implication on the positive employment impact in a lot of key sectors, in mining, construction forestry and transportation. Those are some of the key sectors that are really going to feel the benefit of moving to an HST-like system."
An estimated 10,000 jobs vanished in B.C. in May and Black admitted B.C. gave back most of what was gained in April, but he said the decline was within the context of a very positive trend.
"We are still, in B.C., doing better than the national average in the unemployment rate, and the trend is good, versus July of last year, we are up 44,000 jobs."
Black was also optimistic about what he said are improving employment numbers in the United States.
"Jobs in the United States mean customers for Canada," he said. "So when our largest customer creates more jobs, that's a very good sign for us, as well.
Across Canada, Statistics Canada says 67,000 full-time jobs were created in April, although the national unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.1 per cent.
