Localized unemployment drops to just 4.1 per cent

By Collin Gallant on November 3, 2018.

Medicine Hat News

The jobless rate for the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat economic region was 4.1 per cent in October, down from 5.3 per cent one year earlier. It also marks a 0.7 per cent local drop from September, and sits well below every other region of the province.

The jobless rate in Edmonton held steady month-to-month at 6.3 per cent, and down from 7.8 per cent in late 2017. Calgary’s was more steady at about 8.2 per cent in those periods.

Around rural Alberta, unemployment fell year over year in Fort McMurray (to 5.5 per cent), Banff-Grande Prairie (to 5.3), Camrose-Drumheller (to 5.9), and rose in Red Deer (up one percentage point to 6.3 per cent).

For the province as a whole, the rate sat at 7.3 per cent in October, compared to 7 per cent the month previous and 7.6 per cent last autumn.

The current mark is above the national average of 5.8 per cent. Saskatchewan sits at 6.2 per cent and Manitoba’s rate is 6.1 per cent.

In total, 2.35 million Albertans were employed during the month, about 1,700 fewer than September, but up 42,000 positions over October 2017. The goods producing sector shows gains in oil and gas, utilities, construction and manufacturing, while agriculture slumped.

The number of unemployed Albertans sat at 184,200 in the recent period, 5,000 fewer than last fall, though the labour force also grew during the timeframe, causing a muted effect on the rate.