Regional unemployment creeps up closer to provincial average
By Medicine Hat News on June 9, 2019.
Regional unemployment rose closer to the provincial average in May, according to figures released Friday by Alberta Labour and Immigration. The jobless rate in the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat area sat at 6.5 per cent last month – essentially flat with April, but 1.3 percentage point higher than May 2018. The News does not publish the localized rate because Statistics Canada believes the figure to be unreliable. Regional figures are in line with the province-wide numbers, which show a rate today of 6.7 per cent, rising from 6.2 per cent 12 months ago. The number of employed workers actually rose in the year-over-year analysis – up 21,000 to 2.35 million most recently – but an increase in the labour force dampens the gain. Notably, the rate did fall in Calgary to 7.0 per cent, about 0.7 lower than the previous month, while Edmonton was more steady at 6.8 per cent. Red Deer (7.5 per cent) and Camrose-Drumheller (8.9) both saw increases, while Fort McMurray (6.0) and Northwest region (5.7) saw drops. The Alberta rate sat above the national average of 5.4 per cent, which hit an historic low for the second straight month. Saskatchewan’s rate sat at 5.2 per cent. British Columbia’s was the lowest in the nation at 4.3 per cent. 10-9
