Red Deer region’s unemployment rate was the second highest among Alberta’s seven regions last month.
Unemployment in the region climbed to 7.2 per cent from 6.7 per cent the previous month. In September 2017, the unemployment rate sat at 5.7 per cent.
Calgary posted the highest unemployment rate in the province last month at 8.2 per cent, up slightly from 8.1 a month earlier. A year ago, Calgary’s unemployment rate sat at 8.6 per cent.
The lowest unemployment rate in the province was in Lethbridge-Medicine Hat at 4.8 per cent, followed by Camrose-Drumheller, and Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca-Grande Prairie and Peace River, which were tied at 5.2 per cent.
Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake was 5.9 per cent and Edmonton 6.5 per cent.
The provincial unemployment rate rose to seven per cent last month from 6.7 per cent a month earlier. A year ago it was 7.8 per cent.
B.C. had the country’s lowest unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent and Newfoundland the highest at 13.6 per cent. Other provinces from lowest to highest were Quebec (5.3), Manitoba (5.8), Ontario (5.9), Saskatchewan (6.4), Nova Scotia (7.8), New Brunswick (7.9) and Prince Edward Island (8.7).
Nationally, unemployment last month was at 5.9 per cent, down from six per cent a month earlier and 6.2 per cent a year ago.