The unemployment rate in the Red Deer region spiked nearly a full percentage point last month, according to Statistics Canada figures, giving it the highest jobless rate of the eight provincial regions surveyed.
Alberta Employment and Immigration reported on Friday that the local unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 per cent in March, up from 5.3 per cent in February.
Charles Strachey, the regional communications manager with the provincial department, said an increase was expected due to the seasonal decline in oilpatch activity.
“I was a little bit surprised by how much it jumped,” he acknowledged.
Strachey said the number of positions posted on the Canada-Alberta Job Bank for the province’s central region dropped to about 1,300 last month, as compared with 1,500 in February.
“We saw an increase in the number of people coming into our office in March,” he added, placing the increase at about 15 per cent. However, Strachey cautioned against reading too much into the March unemployment figures. They’re based on a relatively small sample size, he said, and may not be indicative of what’s happening on a broader basis.
“What we try to do is pay attention to the three-month trend, and it’s trending down still.”
Last March, the unemployment rate for Red Deer was seven per cent.
“We’re anticipating that our labour market is going to continue to improve,” said Strachey.
The unadjusted unemployment rate in the Calgary region last month was unchanged at 6.1 per cent, while in the Edmonton region it was down 0.3 percentage points to six per cent. For Athabasca-Grande Prairie the jobless rate slipped 0.2 percentage points to 5.9 per cent, in the Lethbridge-Medicine Hat region it jumped 1.2 percentage points to 5.7 per cent, in Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake it climbed a half percentage point to five per cent, in Camrose-Drumheller it dipped 0.1 percentage points to 4.8 per cent, and in Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House it dropped 0.6 percentage points to 4.6 per cent.
The seasonally adjusted average for Alberta in March was 5.7 per cent, the same as in February.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba continued to enjoy the lowest unemployment rates in Canada in March, at 5.2 and 5.5 per cent respectively. The national average was 7.7 per cent, down 0.1 percentage points.
The province also issued its 2010 Labour Market Review on Friday. That report showed that Red Deer’s unemployment rate last year was 6.2 per cent, down 1.2 percentage points from 2009.
Calgary had the highest jobless rate in 2010 at 6.9 per cent, followed by the Athabasca-Grande Prairie-Peace River region at 6.8 per cent, Edmonton at 6.7 per cent, Lethbridge-Medicine Hat at 6.4 per cent, Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House at 5.4 per cent, Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake at five per cent and Camrose-Drumheller at 4.8 per cent.
Provincewide, employment fell by 8,600 in 2010 — with Alberta and New Brunswick the only provinces to record a year-over-year drop. In 2009, the decline in employment in Alberta was 28,500.
hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com