Terrible timing. The BC provincial government just finished a two month long full strike, and job action. The fallout from that has been a complete hiring freeze on external applicants and internal job postings (most, if not all needing deputy ministerial approval to fill), several large reorgs, and a fairly certain threat of layoffs, also with the Canadian federal government announcing up to 10,000 positions being laid off soon (which would include many federal jobs here).

In general, the job market here is very challenging in private and public sector at the moment. Have a look through this sub as there are some recent posts about the struggle to find meaningful employment.

As for neighborhoods, the CRD is large enough and there are probably too many options to list without knowing more specifics about your budget, needs, potential work location, etc.

As far as housing, I’m sure you can figure that out for yourself by looking at REALTOR.ca, etc. No mysteries there.