Local job rates improving right along with province, country
By Collin Gallant on June 9, 2018.
Medicine Hat News Unemployment in southeastern Alberta continues to fall, while the provincial rate is now lower than other Prairie provinces, according to figures released Friday by Statistics Canada. The jobless rate in the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region dropped to 5.2 per cent last month, down about eight-10ths of a percentage point from both the month before and May 2017. The rest of the province also saw a large drop, down to 6.2 per cent, or 1.6 per cent lower than 12 months earlier. The current rate is now lower than Saskatchewan’s (6.8 per cent) and Manitoba’s (6.5 per cent), which each saw unemployment rise. B.C. posted the lowest rate in Canada at 4.8 per cent, and the national rate was 5.8 per cent. In Alberta, the biggest driver was job gains in large centres. Calgary, at 7.7 per cent, and Edmonton, 6.5 per cent, were down from 9.3 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, in May 2017. Calgary’s rate is still high among major cities in Canada, second only to St. John’s, N.L. (8.7 per cent). Across Alberta about 3,000 more people were working last month compared to April, bringing the total of new jobs to 37,300 over the past year. The biggest drop outside the major urban centres in may occurred in eastern Alberta, including Drumheller and Camrose. The unemployment rate there sat at 4 per cent in May, down from 8.8 per cent one year ago. That was followed by Red Deer, 4.9 per cent today, down from 9 per cent, and Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake, currently 6.4 per cent, down from 8.3 per cent. 10-9
