About jobs in Burnaby
The City of Burnaby is located in the centre of tge Greater Vancouver Area, imediately to the east of the city of Vancouver. Burnaby is the third largest city of the Greater Vancouver Area, with a population of about 220,000, surpassed only by Surrey and Vancouver.
Jobs in Burnaby account for roughly 10% of Greater Vancouver Area's employment. This means that the number of job in Burnaby is smaller than the number of jobs in Surrey and jobs in downtown Vancouver, but larger than in any of the remaining cities in the Greater Vancouver Area.
From the 70's until the early 90's, growth in the number of jobs in Burnaby was faster than the overall growth in the number of jobs in Vancouver (the greater Vancouver area), meaning that Burnaby's share of employment in the greater Vancouver Area was increasing. This trend changed in the early 90's as service jobs started replacing manufacturing jobs in Burnaby. Today, the growth in the number of jobs in Burnaby is in line with the overall growth in the number of jobs in Greater Vancouver - and this is projected to remain the trend through at least 2041.
Manufacturing still accounts for a fairly significant share of all jobs in Burnaby, and so do the retail and healthcare industries. About 26.4% of all jobs in Burnaby are occupied by people who also live in Burnaby. The remainder of people who work in Burnaby commute primarily from the surrounding cities of the Greater Vancouver Area. Overall, there is a fairly high diversity in the type and number of employers in Burnaby. Burnaby is home to a significant number of jobs at Telus. Burnaby has also been fairly successful in establishing itself as a cluster for utility industry jobs, and is home to a significant number of BC Hydro jobs (as BC Hydro's Head Office is in Burnaby). Burnaby is also home to hundreds of Jobs at Ballard Power Systems - a worldwide leading manufacturer of fuel cells who has its head quarters in Burnaby.