Southern Alberta unemployment up a full half point
By Medicine Hat News on October 12, 2019.
Unemployment in rural southern Alberta was up sharply in September while the provincial and national rates fell. The jobless rate in Lethbridge-Medicine Hat rose to 7.6 per cent during the month, up half a percentage point from August, and well above the 4.8 per cent recorded in the region during Sept. 2018. The Alberta number fell half a point in both the yearly and monthly comparison, led by job gains in Calgary, while nationally 54,000 new jobs pushed the rate down to 5.5 per cent. In the month, 11,000 more Albertans were employed last month, mainly in the services sector, compared to one year ago, while the size of the labour force remained even. Previously, job gains have been masked in the rate calculation as more people sought work. That said, almost every region outside Calgary saw the unemployment rate rise, most notably in Edmonton where the recent rate is up one point, to 7.3 per cent, year-over-year. Calgary’s dropped to 7.1 per cent in the seasonally adjusted moving average. Red Deer had the highest rate in Alberta at 8 per cent, while Camrose-Drumheller was lowest at 5.1 per cent. Specific figures for Medicine Hat are considered statistically unreliable by Statistics Canada. The national statistics office said the jobs growth in the country was largely concentrated in the health-care sector, and notes gains in the number of public-sector and self-employed workers. The report also said 70,000 of the new jobs were full-time, as the number of part-time workers declined. The agency said the country saw a rush last month of 49,400 new positions in services industries, but a drop of 21,000 jobs in the private sector – even though year-over-year, private sector jobs is actually up. Young workers aged 15 to 24 years old saw drops in the ranks of full- and part-time workers, inching their unemployment rate to 11.9 per cent – not all that dissimilar from the same time one year ago. Compared with a year earlier, the numbers show Canada added 456,000 jobs, for an increase of 2.4 per cent. The national rate of 5.5 per cent is higher than rates in Quebec and British Columbia (both at 4.8), Saskatchewan (5.3), Manitoba (5.0) and Ontario 5.3). Newfoundland and Labrador’s rate of 11.5 per cent was highest in the country. 14-13
