Local unemployment ticks up slightly to 5.7%, still much better than last year

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on October 9, 2021.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

Unemployment in the Medicine Hat-Lethbridge region rose to 5.7 per cent in September from the previous month, but remains well below the mark of 8.6 per cent recorded 12-months ago, according to new figures released by Statistics Canada.

Nearly 19,600 jobs were added across the province during the month, while an increase in the labour force as autumn began moved the provincial jobless rate up two-tenths of a point to 8.1 per cent month to month.

That sits four percentage points below the September 2020 rate for Alberta, which still ranks above the national average of 6.9 per cent.

“We’ve now recovered all of the jobs lost since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Jobs Minister Doug Schweitzer, of figures showing 2.73 million workers in the province are employed.

“In addition, this week we saw one of the largest proposed investments in our province’s history from Dow Chemical. Their announcement of the world’s first net-zero petrochemical plant shows that Alberta is diversifying our economy and is a global leader in emissions reduction.”

The local economic region in rural southern Alberta showed the largest monthly increase in the province, while Calgary (now at 8.9 per cent) and Edmonton (8.2 per cent) were both down by almost one-third from late 2020.

Most of the job gains across the province were in the service sector, including general retail, accommodation and educational services as universities, stores and restaurants increased operations compared to the fall of 2020.

There were fewer people employed in agriculture, utilities, manufacturing and construction compared to late 2020, but offset by an increase of 20,000 petroleum, forestry and mining positions year over year.

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