Kelowna cracks list of top 10 cities to work in BC for 2020

A BC business magazine has ranked each city in the province, predicting the best places for residents to work in 2020.

BCBusiness' new list, released in December, ranks Kelowna in fifth place where the average household income rate is $106,994 and the unemployment rate is 4.1%.

The rankings were produced through a survey, taking into account seven factors including average household income, under-35 household incomes, five-year income growth, five-year population growth, average shelter costs, average household spending on recreation and the unemployment rate.

According to the results, the average income for those under 35 in Kelowna is $87,596.

The average household spends an average of $5,793 on recreation, $24, 324 on shelter, 18.5 minutes commuting and the population is expected to grow by 8.9% in the next five years.

Kelowna maintains the same fifth-place ranking as the city received for 2019, with Squamish and Whistler ranked as the first and second best cities to work in BC.

A growing tech sector and its attractiveness to young workers has helped the Okanagan city become a better place to work.

“It’s very striking: whether you go to Kelowna, you go to Victoria, the feel of those places is a lot less sleepy than, say, 15 years ago,” said Tsur Somerville, associate professor at UBC Sauder School of Business.

“This may be tied to millennials moving elsewhere and looking for more opportunities, looking for more-affordable places.”

Across the province, notable rankings include Salmon Arm moving up 12 spots to finish seventh for 2020, Vernon, where the average household income is $88,647, finished 24th and Penticton finished 31st with an unemployment rate of 4.5%.

To conduct the survey, only cities with more than 10,000 residents were considered.